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PRIZE ESSAYS 

OF THE 

AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 



1912 



To this Essay was awarded the 

Justin Winsor Prize 

in American History 

for 1912 



THE 

WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 



BY 

ARTHUR CHARLES COLE, PH. D. 

INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



WASHINGTON: AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

1913 



,c 6 



Copyright, 1914 

!y The American Historical Association 

Washington, D. C. 



THE LORD BALTIMORE PRESS 
BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A. 






©CI.A371942 



/ >rU 



ft 



TO MY WIFE 



PREFACE. 

" Under a constitutional government ", says James 
Ford Rhodes (I, 2), "the history of political parties 
is the civil history of the country." If this be true, the 
general tendency to treat the national political party 
as a unit has led to a distortion of the history of the 
ante-bellum South, to the extent, at least, of a failure 
to realize the local character and importance of the 
Whig party in the slave-holding states. It is the chief 
aim of this study to correct the mistakes of a priori 
reasoning, and to sketch the history of the Whig party 
in the South in its relations to the local problems and 
to the national organization. My original plan was to 
study the Whig party in the South solely with refer- 
ence to its relations to the slavery controversy. I soon 
found, from a preliminary survey of the origin and 
general character of the party, that a more extended 
treatment of its early history than I had planned was 
essential to a proper understanding of the later develop- 
ments. Thus the monograph enlarged its scope until 
it came to embrace a general study of the Whig party 
in the South. 

The party history is divided by the election of 1844 
into two nearly equal periods, each unified by its own 
peculiar problem. A further subdivision shows five 
stages of development: (1) At the beginning, in the 
thirties, the southern Whigs were part of a large anti- 
Jackson opposition organization which included in the 

(vii) 



viii PREFACE 

South an important state rights element and a fair 
proportion of the large planting class. (2) In spite 
of a natural hostility in the South .to what came to be 
considered as Whig policy and Whig measures, by the 
election of 1844 the Whigs there had been brought into 
unity and harmony with respect to the party program 
formulated by Henry Clay. (3) The slavery issue, 
coming at a time when they had succumbed to the 
nationalizing influence of party, forced them to act 
cautiously in the face of the anti-slavery inclinations 
of their northern co-partisans. A steady conservatism 
made them the opponents of radical southern move- 
ments and the advocates of compromise. (4) But 
their activity in response to these motives and the grow- 
ing anti-slavery radicalism in the northern wing ren- 
dered them unfit to act as the champions of the slave 
power. A steady decline, accelerated by developments 
in the campaign of 1852, led to their downfall and to the 
disappearance of the Whig organization in the South. 
(5) Finally, we have the attempts to revive the defunct 
party organization, most successfully in the form of 
the Know Nothing party with its brilliant but short 
and erratic career in the middle fifties. These attempts 
continued until the outbreak of the Civil War, when the 
force of sectionalism seemed to triumph and when the 
barriers of party lines were easily levelled or swept 
aside. 

A northerner of the present day and generation, I 
found no difficulty in treating the various phases of 
southern history which have fallen within the scope of 
my researches, with an entire absence of sectional 
feeling. On the contrary, a careful use of the private 
correspondence of southern statesmen and of the public 



PREFACE ix 

prints has given me the local coloring which is indis- 
pensable for such a study. The treatment of the subject 
is intended to be entirely objective and scientific. The 
work does not attempt to pronounce judgment upon 
Jackson and Van Buren and their administrations 
either to praise or condemn. I have contented myself 
with a purely objective treatment, with depicting the 
attitude of the opposition, which, it should be remem- 
bered, was strongly partisan. The same is true of 
the succeeding Democratic administrations. As to the 
split under Tyler, the work does not concern itself with 
the question of his consistency or of the merits of his 
administration, but deals solely with the position of the 
southern Whigs. 

My materials have been drawn principally from the 
library of the University of Pennsylvania, from the 
Library of Congress, and from the libraries of the 
Philadelphia Library Company, of the University of 
Michigan, and of the historical societies of Pennsyl- 
vania and Buffalo. In addition to the thanks that are 
due to these institutions, special acknowledgments are 
due to Dr. Stephen B. Weeks of Washington and to 
Professor U. B. Phillips of the University of Michigan 
for the valuable and extensive collections of contem- 
porary correspondence which they generously placed 
at my disposal. Professor Phillips further showed his 
interest in my researches by reading the greater por- 
tion of my manuscript and making helpful suggestions. 
The value of his assistance is evident from his intimate 
knowledge of the field. His essay on " The Southern 
Whigs " in the Turner Essays appeared after my 
material had in large part been collected and my work 
planned and partly written ; it gave me the satisfaction 



x PREFACE 

of finding that we were working in the same direction 
and was always an incentive to a high standard of 
scholarship. 

I wish here to acknowledge my obligations to those 
who have directed my historical training, by formal 
instruction or by friendly counsel and advice. In this 
connection I mention especially Professor C. H. Van 
Tyne and Professor E. W. Dow of the University of 
Michigan, Professor Frederic L. Paxson of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, and Professors J. B. McMaster, 
H. V. Ames, E. P. Cheyney, and W. E. Lingelbach of 
the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Ames early 
saw the possibilities of the subject of this work and, 
jointly with Professor McMaster, directed the course 
of my researches, the results of which were accepted 
by the Graduate School of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the 
degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Since the award of 
the Justin Winsor prize Professor William S. Robert- 
son and Dr. Solon J. Buck of the University of Illinois 
have aided me with helpful criticisms and suggestions 
in preparing the work for press. 

Arthur Charles Cole. 
Urbana, Illinois, 
February, jp 14, 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Preface . vii 

CHAPTER I. 
The Period of Origins, 1830-1835 1 

CHAPTER II. 
The Rise of the Whig Party in the South, 
1836-1840 39 

CHAPTER III. 
The Growth of Unity, 1 841 -1844 . 64 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Slavery Question to 1848 . . . .104 

CHAPTER V. 
The Southern Movement and the Compromise, 

1848-1850 . . . . . .135 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Union Movement, 1850-185 1 . . . 174 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Problem of Reorganization, 1851-1852 . 212 

(xi) 



xii CONTENTS 




CHAPTER VIII. 


PAGE 


The Election of 1852 


• 245 



CHAPTER IX. 
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill .... 277 

CHAPTER X. 
Attempts at Reorganization, 1 854-1 861 . . '309 

Bibliography 345 

Appendix: Maps 367 

Presidential Election of 1836. 
^Presidential Election of 1840. 
Presidential Election of 1844. 
Presidential Election of 1848. 
Relative Strength of Negro and White Popula- 
tion in 1850. 
State Elections in Georgia, Alabama, and Mis- 
sissippi, 185 1. 
Presidential Election of 1852. 

Index 369 



CHAPTER I. 
The Period of Origins, 1830-1835. 

The national Whig party can truly be regarded as 
the logical successor of the old Federalist and National 
Republican parties. Behind the measures eventually 
brought forward by Whig leaders, there was a funda- 
mental interpretation of governmental powers and rela- 
tions similar, in all essentials, to the principles which 
governed Hamilton and his associates in formulating 
the Federalist policies. So also Clay's controlling per- 
sonality assures us of the .existence of this same rela- 
tionship between the two parties with which his name 
is so closely connected. 

The strength of these earlier parties, especially the 
National Republican, was essentially sectional and 
largely confined to the northern and central states. 1 
Economic conditions and interests made them the nat- 
ural strongholds for parties holding nationalist and 
federalist doctrines. In the South, however, prevailing 
interests made strict construction and state rights prin- 
ciples popular, a fact which tended to identify the politi- 
cal affiliations of the southern people with parties that 
occupied that ground. But the Whig party in the South 
constituted at all times a most powerful minority of 
the voting strength of that section, capable of being 
converted by unusual exertions and under favoring cir- 

1 Compare, however, Phillips, " The South Carolina Federalists", in 
American Historical Review, XIV, 529-543, 731-743, 776-790. 



2 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

cumstances into at least a temporary majority. Various 
considerations linked in political alliance with the few 
southerners whose interests and inclinations led to the 
support of latitudinarian principles, a still larger faction 
made up of those who supported constitutional doc- 
trines on the opposite extreme and whose logical inter- 
ests generally seemed to point against such an affiliation. 
The early history of the party in the South is unified 
by the interesting set of problems which grew out of 
the need for the adjustment of these two wings to har- 
monious action. When once those problems seemed to 
be mastered, a similar division began in consequence of 
the slavery agitation which threatened to bring the 
party to a state of disorganization similar to that which 
characterized the first years of its existence. The his- 
tory of the Whig party in the South is thus divided into 
two periods of nearly equal length, the campaign of 
1844 serving as the period of transition which witnessed 
the solution of its first set of problems and brought into 
the arena a new set that was eventually to work the 
destruction of the national party. 

In analyzing the elements included in the ranks of 
the southern Whig organization, it is natural to turn 
first to the advocates of the American system, but in 
the beginning their numbers were quite insignificant. 
In 1832 Clay carried Kentucky and Maryland and 
secured a fair vote in Louisiana and Virginia. On the 
other hand, Jackson v/as offered almost no opposition 
in Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, and Georgia. In 
his own state Clay had, of course, a large personal fol- 
lowing. In addition the hemp interests there made 
friends for the tariff, while the need of communica- 
tion and the river system of the state made popular the 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 3 

policy of internal improvements by the national govern- 
ment. 2 These issues, together with the support of the 
United States bank, guaranteed to the American system 
the endorsement of a majority of the voting population 
of Kentucky. On the other hand the influence of such 
leaders as Crittenden is not to be underestimated. His 
friendship for Clay and support of his measures natur- 
ally had their influence with those who had as yet to 
decide on a party affiliation. It was of course less 
marked than the influence of Jackson and the political 
leaders in Tennessee, which, with interests very similar 
to those of her neighbor, had little direct support as 
yet to offer to the system. It was quite evident that the 
voters there were not allowed to think for themselves. 3 

Louisiana stood with those states which were 
strongly for the tariff. The sugar-planter of St. Lan- 
dry — he was at the same time a manufacturer — reas- 
oned that without the protection of the existing duty 
he could not sustain competition with the sugars of 
foreign colonies. 4 He was also a judge of good banks ; 
needing their assistance in his financial operations, he 
was careful to see that the state fostered only sound 
banking institutions, and valued the services which the 
branch of the national bank at New Orleans was able 
to offer him. 

The interests of Maryland were so largely com- 

2 Note the excitement following the Maysville road veto. Clay, 
Private Correspondence, 277-281. Cf. A. T. Burnley to Crittenden, 
June 13, 1830: " What think you of Jackson's veto? Did you ever see 
such a state paper — wrong in principle, and clumsy in expression, it is 
a canting hypocritical electioneering document — intended to fix the 
allegiance of the South and Virginia — with as little offence as possible 
to the North and West." Crittenden MSS. 

s Knoxville Republican, quoted in Niles' Register, XLIII, 319. 

4 Clay, Private Correspondence, 293-299; see also ibid., 256. 



4 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

mercial that we can only expect to find her offering a 
strong support in return for the advantages which she 
gained from Clay's measures. The strength of the 
American system in Virginia lay largely in the west 
and in the commercial districts as well along the Poto- 
mac as in the tidewater region. 5 The counties along the 
Ohio and the Great Kanawha were primarily interested 
in wool-growing and in the salt industry ; at the same 
time it was thought that there were possibilities for 
extensive manufacturing there in the future. 6 Along 
with protection were urged appropriations for internal 
improvement schemes which were always popular 
there, means of transportation being necessary to the 
development of the mineral resources of western Vir- 
ginia. 7 North Carolina at the time presented largely 
only possibilities. In the western part of the state there 
was a desire for internal improvements and a not unim- 
portant pro-bank feeling. On the other hand, the anti- 
tariff sentiment in that section was, in the early thirties, 
even stronger. But there were reasonable hopes for an 
awakening in North Carolina ; the situation there 
required only strong and active leaders and political 
events were soon to bring them forward. In the other 
southern states, anti-tariff feeling was all but unani- 
mous while internal improvements and the bank had 
but a small and scattered following. 8 

The advocates of federal paternalism were, then, at 
the beginning of our period clearly in a minority in the 
southern states. Indeed, as the sectional self-conscious- 

5 Ambler, Sectionalism in Virginia, passim, maps. 
6 Niles' Register, XLV, 242; XLIX, 185. 

7 Cf. petitions for internal improvements, House Journal, 21 Cong., 
2 sess., 120, 162. 

8 See Niles' Register, XLIII, 194, 220, etc. See also Mangum MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 5 

ness of the South steadily developed, the cause of Clay 
and his system became daily more and more hopeless. 
Thus it would seem that if the Whig party of the 
thirties had been the nationalistic organization that it 
proved itself to be in its prime, it could scarcely have 
dreamed of success in the South. This idea, therefore, 
must at once be dismissed as untenable. Early whig- 
gery was, in the South especially, quite a different 
thing from an endorsement of the measures for which 
Henry Clay stood. During the early years of the move- 
ment it never pretended to be more than an anti- Jack- 
son- Van Buren or opposition party on a broad basis — 
a party hospitable to every faction that was willing to 
join the cause. 

For, strangely enough, the nationalists were to find 
an element of strength in one of the greatest disadvan- 
tages from which they suffered — namely, in the fact 
that they were now out of touch with the federal admin- 
istration. Regarded with contempt by the party in 
power, they were powerless to do more than offer a 
feeble and futile opposition to it until circumstances 
linked them in common cause against Jackson with 
allies who, though on the opposite extreme in constitu- 
tional interpretation, were soon ready for any policy by 
which they might break the power of the president. 
The addition of these new elements for the Whig coali- 
tion that was soon to form was made possible by schism 
in the ranks of those who had raised Jackson to the 
presidency. It is important that the first faction to 
break from earlier associations was the one that was 
led by political exigencies to carry its doctrines of strict 
construction and the sovereignty of the states to their 
utmost extremity. 



6 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

State rights doctrines had long found a stronghold 
in the South. It was in the South that Jefferson and 
Madison had promulgated the doctrines of the Repub- 
lican party of 1798 in the Virginia and Kentucky reso- 
lutions. Jefferson, moreover, had continued to be the 
champion of these principles in the old Dominion dur- 
ing the succeeding decades, when events tended to force 
that interpretation of federal relations into the back- 
ground. With him cooperated John Randolph of 
Roanoke, while Nathaniel Macon actively directed the 
particularistic forces in the neighboring state of North 
Carolina. In South Carolina and Georgia the want of 
such leaders, combined with other causes, made the 
period from 1798 to the early twenties one of compara- 
tive inactivity as far as the development of state rights 
theories there was concerned. 9 

Amid the fervent outburst of nationalism that fol- 
lowed the War of 1812 it was apparently in vain that 
such southern leaders as Macon endeavored to rouse 
the South to the dangers of a liberal construction of the 
constitution. It was a sectional appeal ; for, as Macon 
pointed out, " The states having no slaves may not feel 
as strongly, as the states having slaves about stretching 
the constitution ; because no such interest is to be 
touched by it." There was logic in his argument that 
" if Congress can make banks, roads, and canals under 
the constitution, they can free any slave in the United 
States " ; but it was logic which southerners seemed for 
the time to fail to appreciate. 10 

9 Phillips, Georgia and State Rights, 98-116; Houston, Nullification in 
South Carolina, 6-7. 

10 See Macon's letters to Bartlett Yancey, dated March 8, April 15, 
1818, Dec. 26, 1824, Dec. 8, 1825; Wilson, Congressional Career of 
Nathaniel Macon, . 46-47, 49, 72, 76. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 7 

When, however, the insistent demand of the manu- 
facturing states to the north for protection to American 
industry brought the beginning of a high tariff system, 
a revival and development of strict construction and 
particularistic doctrines took place. The South then 
found itself forced to contribute toward a cause in 
which it had no material interest. As soon as the logi- 
cal results of this situation were realized, able leaders 
stepped forward to protect the interests of their section 
by appealing to the rights of the individual states. 
Floyd, Tazewell, and Tyler in Virginia, together with 
Hayne of South Carolina and men like Mangum of 
North Carolina and Gilmer and Berrien of Georgia, 
labored with Macon and Randolph to check the prog- 
ress of the American system on account of the heavy 
burdens it was placing on the South. They were soon 
denying the constitutionality of the various measures 
which were put forward despite the growing opposition 
of the planting states. It remained but for Calhoun, 
following the already radical lead of South Carolina, 
to evolve a remedy by which, though claiming not to 
have gone an inch beyond the opinions of the Republi- 
can party of 1798" he was led to the extremes of par- 
ticularism. At once he became the champion of the 
" adhesive rights of southern freemen ". His theory 
of nullification was to provide a certain solution when 
everything else had failed. His doctrines spread rap- 
idly through the southern Atlantic states and also into 
Alabama and Mississippi. 12 

With Calhoun in the vice-presidential chair and with 
evidences of friendship from President Jackson at the 

11 Calhoun Correspondence, ed. Jameson, 298. 

11 Ibid., 302-303. Cf. letters in Mangum MSS., Duff Green MSS., 
Floyd MSS., etc. 



8 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

opening of his first administration the southern partic- 
ularists had very natural hopes of strengthening their 
position. The " tariff of abominations " had greatly 
added to their following, and local issues, as the Creek 
Indian difficulties in Georgia, had led to frequent asser- 
tions of the reserved rights of the states and sometimes 
to open defiance of the claims of the general govern- 
ment. 13 Jackson had led many to believe that he was 
decidedly friendly to the particularist cause from his 
course in regard to the controversy between Georgia 
and the Cherokees. 14 In 1830 the nullifiers of South 
Carolina were claiming him as their friend. 15 But sus- 
picion was aroused when his administration brought 
about the fulfillment of none of the cherished hopes of 
the southern state rights leaders. In spite of their pro- 
tests, the bank, the tariff, and the judiciary remained 
as engines of oppression to crush to earth the people of 
the South. 16 Calhoun early became dissatisfied with the 
halting course of his chief which to him clearly did not 
seem to help toward a cordial union of the South for a 
redress of grievances. In the spring of 1830, at the 
close of the first year of their joint administration, 
a bitter personal controversy brought to an end all 
friendly relations between the two men. 17 When the 
cabinet was reorganized in the summer of 1 831, Cal- 
houn saw his friends swept from the favor of the 

13 Niks' Register, XXXII, 16; Ames, State Documents on Federal 
Relations, 1 13-124. 

14 Clay, Private Correspondence, 329, 331. 

15 Poinsett to Jackson, Oct. 23, 1830, Poinsett MSS. 

16 Southern Times, March 15, 183 1, quoted in Niles' Register, XL, 
104-106. 

17 See correspondence in Shipp, Life and Times of Wm. H. Craw- 
ford, 208-209, 238-250; Calhoun Correspondence, 260, ff. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 9 

administration and the southern influence greatly 
diminished in the new organization. 18 His hopes were 
blighted and he and his following became the most 
bitter of the opposition. 18 Jackson had become " the 
greatest impediment in the march of principle in the 
Southern States ". 20 At once Calhoun began to urge a 
" return to the Whig doctrines of '98 " which at an 
earlier period of our history had " effected so salutary 
a change in our Government ", 21 hoping that they might 
act as a check upon " that corrupt knot " that had got 
hold of power. Considerable sentiment developed in 
the south Atlantic states in favor of Calhoun's candi- 
dacy for the presidency and in opposition to Jackson's 
reelection. 22 

Jackson's overwhelming popularity in .the South 
seems to have rested upon a somewhat artificial basis. 
Political parties there had for some time been in sub- 
stantial agreement on questions of national policy, 
while local divisions were largely the result of the per- 
sonal followings of the rival leaders. Jackson had been 
supported by the planters with the expectation that he 
would be a fair champion of the political opinion of 

**Ibid., 291. 

19 Clay, Private Correspondence, 327. Governor John Floyd of Vir- 
ginia, having been " thrown overboard " by Jackson, openly declared 
war upon him, promising if reelected to play Macduff to Jackson's 
Macbeth. Floyd to Colonel John Williams, Dec. 27, 1830. He believed 
that Jackson had adopted latitudinarian principles: " To my chagrin 
and mortification, every principle, and every power claimed by Adams 
and Clay, as belonging to the Federal Government, has been acted on, 
or claimed by President Jackson." Floyd to J. S. Barbour, June 24, 
1831, Floyd MSS. 

20 Calhoun Correspondence, 319. 

21 Ibid., 317. 3i8. 

22 M. Jones to Mangum, Dec. 21, 1831, Mangum MSS. Floyd to 
Calhoun, April 16, 1831, Floyd MSS. 



io WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

most of the voters of his section. But many were mere 
eleventh hour converts following the majority senti- 
ment in his favor with a good deal of reluctance. 
Though they feared that peculiar type of democracy 
of which Jackson was so truly representative, they pre- 
ferred him in 1828 to Adams and later to Clay, since 
they were the only other alternatives and he the lesser 
evil. 23 This was especially true of those who had in the 
presidential election of 1824 supported William H. 
Crawford of Georgia, a southerner who himself pre- 
ferred and would have chosen his bitter adversary, John 
Quincy Adams with his reputed " federalism," over the 
popular Tennessean. 24 

When, therefore, Jackson as president of the United 
States was called upon to consider the interests of all 
sections, it became an impossibility to live up to the 
expectations of all southerners. Many of them noted 
with dismay that the confidence of the administration 
was given to Van Buren and other northern politicians 
and believed that Jackson had readily embraced all 
their feelings and views. 23 Accordingly, his first term 
was hardly under way when the seeds of indifference 
and discontent began to germinate in the southern 

2S Floyd of Virginia analyzed the motives of Jackson's supporters in 
a letter to J. S. Barbour, June 24, 1831. He declared that most of 
them embraced his cause as a reward for his military services, while 
many did so from " dislike of Henry Clay and fear of his political 
principles ". He could " see no difference between the Princely Purple 
and the Blackguard Black". Floyd MSS. 

24 Crawford to Clay, Feb. 4, 1828, Clay, Private Correspondence, 192. 

25 Floyd to Colonel John Williams, Dec. 27, 1830. In a letter to 
Senator L. W. Tazewell, dated May 31, 1832, Floyd declared that he 
had an early premonition of a division in the Jackson party: "Why I 
thought there would be a division was that I knew Jackson to be a 
coarse, vulgar man in his feelings, and had chosen the base part of 
his party to counsel and advise." Floyd MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 n 

states 26 and open dissatisfaction to appear among south- 
ern representatives at Washington. 37 

This discontent was increased by developments that 
came in 1832. The clamor of southern dissatisfaction 
with the tariff policy of the country was daily growing 
louder and the determination became more and more 
decisive not to endure any legislation in the direction 
of further protection. Some southerners were unable 
to decide as to just where Jackson stood on the matter 
of the tariff ; * others definitely understood that he was 
a supporter of the principle of protection ; both groups 
were dissatisfied with the position that he was occupy- 
ing. Mangum of North Carolina declared upon the 
floor of the Senate that the South had long known the 
president to be in favor of a protective system : " Lov- 
ing him as we did, admiring him as we must, revering 
him as we ought, and confiding in him as we still delight 
to do, we, nevertheless, always remembered his opinions 
on this subject, with great regret. . . . The sentiment 
is growing in the South, and I trust will grow more 
and more, that we will wear in our hearts no love for 
any administration, that compels us to wear the chains 
of this system." " 

Opposition to the new tariff measure had been utterly 

28 When the editorial management of the Natchez Gazette was 
changed in November, 1830, the new editor announced his intention of 
giving the administration his active support, explaining his policy thus: 
" For there is, we believe, but one or two journals in the State that 
have taken a decided stand in its defence, or even given a full and 
impartial history of its proceedings." United States Telegraph, Nov. 
24, 1830. 

"Duff Green to R. K. Cralle, Dec. 5, 1831, Duff Green MSS. 

28 1. Iredell to Mangum, Feb. 4, 1832: "Why does not General 
Jackson come out upon it! Why is this studied equivocation in all his 
messages — who can understand on which side he is?" Mangum MSS. 

29 Register of Debates, 22 Cong., 1 sess., I, 327. 



12 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

unavailing; its enactment, however, led to proposals 
for the cooperation of the people of the whole South. 
Self-redress was talked of as the only remaining rem- 
edy for the oppression. Calhoun's doctrines naturally 
became very popular. Many southern politicians had 
already taken sides with him in his strictures on the 
administration. 30 In Mississippi, Quitman had declared 
himself for Calhoun and in the summer of 183 1 had 
organized state rights associations in a few counties 
there. 31 The passage of the tariff gave an occasion for 
the redoubling of energies. Duff Green urged the 
Calhoun supporters in Virginia " to adopt the model of 
South Carolina and organize WHIG clubs " in every 
county : " Take the Whig principles of '98, the creed 
of Jefferson, opposition to the tariff, etc., as your text." 
Again, " If we organize Whig clubs in opposition to 
Van Buren and the tariff, and rally around the consti- 
tution ... we will lead the people back to first prin- 
ciples and cure the sea of Jacksonism without seeming 
to assail it ". 32 Within a sixmonth Green was making 
an appeal to the whole nation on a broader basis, laying 
entire stress on common cause against Jackson. 

Confidence in Jackson was becoming impaired ; his 
word no longer had its accustomed influence. In the 
heat of the campaign of 1832 a strong movement in 
opposition to Van Buren, whom Jackson had designated 
for the vice-presidency, took place in Virginia, the Car- 
olinas, Alabama, and Mississippi. 

Seldom has a leader stirred up such universal animos- 
ity in the South with seemingly so little provocation as 

30 Claiborne, Life of Quitman, I, 108. 

31 Ibid., in. 

32 Green to R. K. Cralle, March 12, 28, 1832, Duff Green MSS. The 
highest honor that Green could do a man was to call him a " Whig of 
the school of '98 ". 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 13 

Van Buren had even by the summer of 1832. South- 
erners had become suspicious of him from the time that 
Jackson had given him the chief seat in his cabinet and 
with it his entire confidence. They seem to have taken 
a strong dislike to him as a " New York politician ". 
This feeling was shared even by many of Van Buren's 
personal friends who hailed from the southern states ; 33 
it increased as the rumor spread that Jackson proposed 
to make Van Buren his successor. For it was known 
to some of the state rights leaders before the end of 
1830 that Jackson counted on Van Buren's nomination 
for the vice-presidency and was planning to resign and 
retire in his favor shortly after his own reelection. 34 
This hatred of Van Buren was especially intense in the 
state of South Carolina. 35 Calhoun and his friends saw 
in the situation in the early part of 1832 an opportunity 
of dividing the Jackson party in the South by making 
an issue over the ratification of the appointment of 
Van Buren as minister to England. 36 This, combined 
with other causes, led to his rejection by the Senate. 37 
The mere suggestion of Van Buren's nomination for 
the vice-presidency was found to be enough to raise 

33 J. Iredell to Mangum, Feb. 4, 1832, Mangum MSS. 

34 Floyd to Colonel John Williams, Dec. 27, 1830, Floyd MSS. Cf. 
Jackson to Van Buren, Dec. 6, 1831, Van Buren MSS. 

35 See Jackson to Van Buren, Nov. 3, 1832, Van Buren MSS. 

36 Green to R. K. Cralle, Jan. 3, 1832, Duff Green MSS. Cf. J. A. 
Hamilton to Van Buren, Feb. 12, 1832, Van Buren MSS. 

37 W. S. Archer, a Virginia Jackson supporter, wrote to Crittenden, 
July 8, 1832, that there was only one consideration which would induce 
him to take the mission to England: " It is if there be no other 
mode of preventing its being given to the most despicable of all the 
Protegees of the Kitchen Cabinet." Crittenden MSS. Archer later 
requested a friend to make it perfectly plain to Van Buren that, while 
supporting the administration, he had no personal regard for the latter. 
Cf. C. C. Cambreleng to Van Buren, Dec. 26, 1832; Van Buren to 
Cambreleng, Jan. 25, 1833, Van Buren MSS. 



14 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

divisions in the Jackson ranks in the South and good 
Jackson men predicted that Van Buren could not get 
the vote of their states. 38 There was, moreover, a great 
deal of uncertainty as to, and much criticism of, the 
latter's views on the tariff and internal improvements. 

The strict construction wing from the South tried 
to defeat the selection of the " little magician "" in the 
Democratic national convention in May, offering Philip 
P. Barbour of Virginia as their candidate. 39 After Van 
Buren had been nominated, Henry A. Wise rose and 
declared before the convention : " I will not vote for 
your nominee for Vice-President, my vote will be cast 
for Philip P. Barbour of Virginia for that office/' *° 
Barbour's supporters generally refused to acquiesce in 
his formal rejection and organized a Jackson-Barbour 
movement which was warmly supported throughout 
the campaign. When at a late moment in the canvass 
Van Buren came forward with a public declaration in 
which he endorsed the views of Jackson on the tariff, 
internal improvements, and the bank, Barbour an- 
nounced his withdrawal to preserve party unity. 41 Many 
of his supporters, however, carried their convictions 
with them to the polls and registered their votes against 
the regular nominee. 42 

The Calhoun forces came out boldly against Jack- 
son himself. In August Duff Green, the editor of the 

38 John Martin to Mangum, March 16, .1832, Mangum MSS. 

33 Mies' Register, XLII, 235. Cf. Claiborne, Life of Quitman, I, 108. 

40 Hambleton, Virginia Politics, xv. Cf. Wise, Life of Wise, 35. 

41 Niles' Register, XLIII, 153. On this movement see id., XLII, 283, 
339» 405, 406; XLIII, 86, 116, 124-127, 153. 

42 Cf. ibid., 215. Duff Green, however, condemned Barbour for his 
course. " He is unworthy of our support ", he wrote to Cralle, Aug. 3, 
1832, " Let him go, he will defile you — He is sold to the Kitchen 
Cabinet." Duff Green MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 15 

United States Telegraph, was convinced that it was 
now possible to prevent the president's reelection; 
hence he announced his intention to work for that 
end. Jackson was charged with having violated every 
principle upon which his election had originally been 
advocated. 45 

The attempt was made to weaken Jackson as much as 
possible by opposition from two different directions, 
for Clay was already actively in the field as the candi- 
date of the National Republicans. It is interesting to 
note the tendency of these extremes, the Clay and the 
Calhoun forces, which it pleased Jackson to designate 
" these antipodes in politics "," to regard themselves as 
working in a common cause. The local leaders of the 
two factions at various times discussed the possibility 
of cooperation, 45 while each of the two political giants 
adopted a cautious policy of trying to conciliate the 
adherents of the other and to attract them to their 
respective standards. A basis for friendly relations 
existed in a common desire to break down the power 
of Jackson. At the opening of Congress in December, 
1 83 1, it was rumored that Clay and Calhoun had come 
to an agreement about the tariff, and Jackson was pre- 
pared to see them unite with the aim of destroying 
him. 4 * Although this did not happen, with the opening 
of the presidential campaign the friends of Clay 
expressed a willingness to see Calhoun enter the con- 
test, while Calhoun's friends expressed a preference 

43 U. S. Telegraph, Aug. 23, 1832. 

44 Jackson to Van Buren, Dec. 6, 17, 1831, Van Buren MSS. 

43 John Floyd to Calhoun, April 16, 1831; Floyd to Colonel John 
Williams, Dec. 27, 1830, Floyd MSS.; A. T. Burnley to Crittenden, 
June 13, 1830, Crittenden MSS. 

^Jackson to Van Buren, Dec. 6, 17, 1831, Van Buren MSS. 



16 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

for the election of Clay rather than of Jackson. 47 Some 
of the leading Calhoun workers even advised the coop- 
eration of the opposition in all sections. 4 * The result of 
the election, however, showed that Jackson himself 
had not lost his hold on the southern voters. He 
could have suffered a much greater loss without his 
success having been in any way endangered. * 

But the country had been facing a situation much 
more critical than a presidential contest. The South 
had met the new tariff measure with open defiance. 
Anti-tariff and free trade sentiments were expressed 
in the language of nullification and state sovereignty. 
South Carolina was turning toward the final remedy 
which she said existed in the reserved rights of the 
states. When her legislature proceeded to declare its 
official sanction of the nullification doctrine and to pre- 
pare to enforce it in opposition to the authority of the 
general government, the executive of the nation was 

47 " I find a strong predisposition to Calhoun among Clay's and Wirt's 
friends. If we can dispose of the tariff all will go well." Green to 
Cralle, undated, 1832. Cf. letter of April 6, 1832, Duff Green MSS. 

Governor Floyd of Virginia came gradually to prefer Clay's success 
" not from love of him, but the increasing disgust of Jackson ". See 
his letter of Jan. 2, 1832, Floyd MSS. Duff Green, too, declared that, 
while not himself in favor of Clay, " as it is Van Buren's policy to 
come in on the American system, I would prefer to trust Mr. Clay than 
Van Buren with power." To Cralle, Aug. 23, 1832, Duff Green MSS. 

48 U. S. Telegraph, Aug. 27, 1832. " What say you to the organ- 
ization of a committee of correspondence of the disaffected Jackson 
men throughout the United States — say that they are organized as Whig 
Clubs and opposed to the abuse of executive influence? " Green to 
Cralle, Aug. 3, 1832, Duff Green MSS. 

Green wrote to his former adversary, J. H. Pleasants of the Rich- 
mond Whig, on Aug. 27, 1832: "We are no longer political opponents. 
We have a common object; and this is to defeat the election of Jackson; 
to break down the corrupt influence which now administers the Govt, 
in his name. . . . There is no reason why the friends of Mr. Calhoun, 
indeed why any southern man maintaining southern principles should 
prefer Gen. Jackson to Mr. Clay." Ibid. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 17 

forced to show his hand. Jackson was prepared to meet 
the crisis. 49 This he did in his celebrated proclamation 
which promptly, as was intended, removed all doubt as 
to his views. It was at once pointed out that the prin- 
ciples embodied closely followed the doctrines advanced 
by Webster in his reply to Hayne. 50 

The milliners found themselves met with resolute 
and unexpected determination. The situation was so 
far from agreeable to them that the reception of the 
proclamation is worthy of note. It was denounced as 
a specimen of western bullying, as " the federal mani- 
festo ", the " tyrannical edict " of " King Andrew". 51 
The Charleston Mercury, on the fifth of January, 
labelled it " a piece of the mosaic of consistent incon- 
sistency, which has all along marked his professions 
and practice on the subject of State rights, the tariff, 
and nullification ". As violent language as would be 
consistent with decency came from the nullifiers of 
Georgia. The Augusta Courier stamped upon Jackson 
the character of " hypocrite, usurper, and tyrant — the 
meanest and most palpable of hypocrites — the most 
daring, reckless and dangerous of usurpers — and the 
most self-willed, heartless and bloody of tyrants ", 52 
Such words could only mean a complete breach with 
Jackson and Jacksonism. 

The nullifiers formed themselves en masse into an 
anti-Jackson party. They took for .themselves the appel- 
lation of " whigs ", 53 a term which had been in their 

49 Of this the state rights leaders were not unaware; see Green to 
Cralle, Nov. 16, 1832, Duff Green MSS. 
bn Niles' Register, XLIII, 286. 

51 Comments from the Charleston Mercury and Columbia Telescope 
quoted in ibid., 267; cf. ibid., 288, 331. 

52 Augusta Courier, quoted in Niles' Register, XLIII, 345. 
53 Niles' Register, XLIII, 287. 

3 



18 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

minds while considering the recent usurpations and 
which, as has been seen, had been favorably com- 
mended to them by their leaders in directing the forma- 
tion of state rights organizations. At the same time 
they tried to fix upon their opponents, the Jackson 
Union men, the stigma of " tories " — thus to bring 
them into disrepute. A correspondent of the Charles- 
ton Mercury proposed that " all the printers throughout 
the State, shall designate the friends of the State by the 
proud name of WHIGS, and the friends of Andrew 
Jackson and of consolidation by the name of TORIES. 
. . . Every man now in South Carolina is a whig or a 
tory ". M This revival of the term " whig ", as applied 
to a political party, or, more properly at this point, a 
political faction, is not without significance. It inevi- 
tably suggests a southern origin for the use of the name 
by the united opposition a few years later. Being 
brought so prominently before the public eye, it must 
have had its influence upon this more general applica- 
tion when other events had occurred to intensify the 
bitterness of the anti- Jackson elements in all sections 
of the country. It seems clear that the use of the 
name " whig " in reference to the opposition in the 
northern states a year later was but an extension of 
what had been begun in these exciting times in South 
Carolina, that it was not in its origin a deliberate change 
of name by the followers of Clay. The arguments 
applied in 1833 were the same as those of Clay and 
Calhoun in the Senate in 1834, when they pointed out 
the analogy to the situation in England where the 
Tories were traditionally the supporters of the execu- 
tive power and royal prerogative and the Whigs the 
champions of liberty. 

54 Charleston Mercury, Dec. 17, 1832. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 19 

But Jackson's proclamation did more than manifest 
the resolution of the president to put down practical 
nullification in South Carolina ; more than reiterate 
the sentiment of his toast at the Jefferson dinner : " Our 
Federal Union ; it must be preserved." It was at once 
seen to be an elaborate commentary on the constitution. 
As such, its friends and critics felt that it sustained the 
views of those who had been contending for liberal 
construction. 35 Criticisms on that basis soon came in 
from Jackson's earlier followers who, though by no 
means ready to endorse nullification, felt that he had 
gone too far. The Milledgeville Southern Recorder 
issued its warning that many of the views were such as 
would be repudiated " by the great republican party of 
the union, as utterly at war with some of the funda- 
mental principles of their political creed ". Given to 
choose between Jackson and their cherished state rights 
doctrines, many southerners did not hesitate to remain 
true to the latter. In Virginia especially was this true : 
there the practical nullifiers were weak in numbers but 
state rights doctrines met almost universal acceptance 
particularly in the eastern half of the state; to none 
of the voters in that section were the views of Jackson's 
proclamation very, palatable. Niles pointed out that 
" it completely nullified the contracted and the starched 
theories of the ' Virginia school of politicians ' ". B6 Vin- 
dication of the " ancient principles " of the state against 
the proclamation was inconsistent with continued sup- 
port of Jackson." The result was the growth of a for- 
midable state rights party which, with the exception of 

"Niles' Register, XLIII, 249; Boston Gazette, in ibid., 286; Milledge- 
ville Southern Recorder, in ibid., 345. 
50 Ibid., 249. 
57 Richmond Whig, in ibid., 345. 



20 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

a few extremists, aimed to voice a protest against the 
principles of the president's proclamation, while reject- 
ing the remedy resorted to by South Carolina. 58 

The attitude of some of the Virginia leaders calls 
for attention. Governor Floyd bitterly denounced ■ * the 
disgusting prostitution of President Jackson ". 59 When 
Senator Tyler considered the fate of his country should 
the principles of the proclamation prevail, " his lan- 
guage breathed the spirit of patriotism and the prin- 
ciples of '98 ". 60 John Randolph, the patriarch of 
Roanoke, jumped from his sick bed at the news of the 
proclamation and devoted the closing days of his long 
life to a busy campaign in which he denounced Jack- 
son's stand in the loudest anathemas. 61 The proclama- 
tion completed the alienation from Jackson of Bibb, 
Upshur, Gordon, and Tazewell. 62 William S. Archer, 
who was still supporting the administration as part of 
his " public duty ", believed and so informed Van Buren 
" that as to getting Virginia to adopt the President's 
proclamation doctrines it was out of the question — 
that you might rely upon it no matter who might say 
otherwise that the old fashioned doctrines would be 
sustained by an overwhelming vote ". 63 When the news 
of the effect of the proclamation in their state reached 
General Gordon and Senator Tyler at Washington, 
" they both sprang up, caught each other in their arms 

58 Richmond Whig, in Niles' Register, XLIII, 285. 

59 Floyd to L. W. Tazewell, Dec. 28, 1832. Mrs. Floyd wrote to her 
husband from their home, Jan. 1, 1833, denouncing the president as 

" a bloody, bawdy, treacherous, lecherous villain There is an 

universal indignation amongst the women of the country at the Presi- 
dent's course." Floyd MSS. 

60 C. A. Wickliffe to T. W. Gilmer, Dec. 15, 1832, William and Mary 
Quarterly, XV, 227-228. 

61 Garland, Life of John Randolph, II, 359-362. 

62 Tyler, Letters and Times of the Tylers, I, 476. 

83 C. C. Cambreleng to Van Buren, Dec. 26, 1832, Van Buren MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 21 

and danced around the room like children in a delirium 
of joy ". ei The effect upon the popularity of the presi- 
dent was instantaneous. Many of his most ardent 
admirers at once deserted his standard, alienated by the 
wound which they claimed he had inflicted on the con- 
stitution and liberty. 65 The movement for state rights 
was strong enough to carry many National Republicans 
into its ranks : Pleasants, the editor of the Richmond 
Whig, became the staunch defender of state rights 
as he had been of the American system. 68 His rival, 
Ritchie of the Enquirer, was led by his friendship for 
Jackson to act as his apologist though even he could 
not approve of the principles he had voiced. Ritchie 
was ready to believe that the proclamation did not 
reflect the individual views of the president, that the 
argument was rather that of his secretary, and that his 
attitude toward the Virginia doctrines remained un- 
changed. 07 This was but one of the ways in which 
Jackson men reconciled their political beliefs with the 
continued support of their leader. 

Jackson's popularity was fully put to the test and 
loyalty to him was the only force that restrained many 
from criticism and condemnation. Often in spite of 
apparent inconsistency they made their views conform 
to those of the president, dropping the South Carolina 
doctrines in hot haste and condemning as traitors the 

64 Green to Cralle, Dec. 15, 1832, Duff Green MSS. 

65 Cf. Tyler to Floyd, Jan. 16, 1833, Tyler MSS. General John Floyd, 
a Jackson elector in the last election, wrote to Governor Floyd under 
date of Jan. 3, 1833: "His unlooked for — uncalled for— and ILL 
timed proclamation . . . has torn off the mask, etc." Floyd MSS. 

66 Duff Green had only the highest praise for Pleasants and his work. 
He wrote to Cralle, Dec. 16, 1832: "The effect of his paper in the 
House of Reps was apparent in every countenance. The Whigs were 
congratulating each other." Cf. letter of Dec. 15, Duff Green MSS. 

67 Niles' Register, XLIII, 345. 



22 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

leaders whose views they had recently prided them- 
selves on following. 68 It is safe, however, to conclude 
that the great body of advanced state rights men were 
beyond reconciliation and that this meant a group large 
enough to weaken the hold of Jackson in the South. 
For what was true of Virginia was also true, more or 
less, of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Missis- 
sippi where state rights was strong and opposition to 
Jacksonism a growing force. 69 There the threat of 
coercion had the effect of fostering nullification and 
of giving it a prestige with some that all the argu- 
ments of Calhoun could not have accomplished. Those 
whose consciences could not be satisfied with an adapta- 
tion of Madison's interpretation of the Virginia report 
and resolutions of 1798 were inevitably led in that 
direction. The proclamation gave the death blow to 
many a southerner's Jacksonism. 

The nation was facing a crisis. Each side had shown 
its hand and was now waiting for the other to act; 
it remained to be seen whether the controversy would 
have to be settled by the force of arms. Certain facts 
made this decidedly improbable. Jackson, to be sure, 
had requested further provision for carrying out the 
principles laid down in his proclamation, out of which 
grew the force bill or " bloody bill ", a brutum fulmen 
which was received in the South with no less hostility 
than had been manifested toward the executive mani- 

88 Knoxville Republican, in ibid., 319. Henry A. Wise opposed the 
" Federal heresies " of the proclamation on the one hand and on the 
other the remedies of South Carolina. He therefore continued his sup- 
port of the administration. Hambleton, Virginia Politics, xvii-xviii; 
Wise, Life of Wise, 37-40. Cf. R. E. Parker to Van Buren, March 21, 
1S33, Van Buren MSS. 

69 Green to Cralle, Dec. 15, 1832, Duff Green MSS. [E. J. Hale] to 
Mangum, Jan. 20, 1833, etc., Mangum MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 23 

festo. But the olive branch was just as sure to be 
extended in the other hand. The administration was 
itself prepared to offer a tariff measure which was 
intended to tranquillize the South. 70 

There was one man who was ready at this time to 
play the part of a compromiser — that man was Henry 
Clay. He had within the past year tried to effect an 
amicable adjustment of the tariff, but had failed in his 
resolution of 1832 to go far enough to satisfy the South 
and its leaders. The election that followed had taught 
him the necessity of building up his strength in the 
southern states, which suggested further concessions in 
the matter of the tariff. He was indeed planning some 
such service as he prepared to leave his home at Ashland 
for the coming session of Congress. 71 As Crittenden 
had pointed out to Clay before the enactment of the 
tariff of 1832, a reduction of duties was not only 
consistent with the principle of protection when the 
reduction affected manufactures which were already 
established on a firm and permanent basis but such a 
policy would even demonstrate the soundness of the 
protectionist principle, in making possible the announce- 
ment that it had accomplished the very results that had 
been claimed for it. 72 Crittenden was but one of those 
who had been urging upon him such a peace offering to 
conciliate the opponents of the tariff in the present 
crisis. 

John Randolph in his speeches against the president's 
proclamation pointed to Clay as the only man who could 

T0 See Jackson MSS. and Van Buren MSS., especially C. C. Cam- 
breleng to Van Buren, Dec. 29, 1832. 

71 See Crittenden to Clay, Nov. 24, 1832; Clay to Crittenden, Nov. 
28, 1832, Crittenden MSS. 

"Crittenden to Clay, Feb. 23, 1832, Crittenden MSS. 



24 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

save the Union; he even credited him with patriotism 
equal .to the occasion. 73 The state rights men naturally 
turned to him for the expected relief. They were above 
all else unwilling to accept it from the administration. 
Accordingly, immediately after the publication of the 
proclamation, Tyler had gone to Clay and earnestly con- 
sulted with him and his friends as to the situation, 
making a strong appeal to their patriotism. They 
arranged for consultations between Calhoun and Clay, 
which were held and in which the compromise tariff 
bill was doubtless agreed upon. It would seem that 
the scheme emanated from the great South Carolinian 
or one of his state rights friends. Calhoun had no 
desire for a sudden reduction which he saw would work 
havoc with the manufacturers of the nation, 74 and the 
periodical reduction scheme is just such a one as we 
should expect from him. Clay, on the other hand, 
would naturally desire the reduction to be on the prin- 
ciple of the protective policy. At any rate, Tyler gave 
a careful description of just such a tariff arrangement 
as was finally adopted to his friend Governor Floyd, in 
a letter dated the tenth of January, 1833, pointing out 
that " the principle of protection is to be utterly aban- 
doned ", 75 Six days later, he told him to expect to see 
Clay come to the support of Calhoun, closing- with the 
news, "All prospect of settling the tariff except through 
Clay is gone — From him I still have hope — If he strikes 
at all, it will be at a critical moment ". 76 Four weeks 
later Clay rose in the Senate to announce the great 

73 Garland, Life of Randolph, II, 362. 

74 Niles' Register, LI, 78. 

75 " The battle is fought and won ", he declared. Floyd MSS. 

76 Tyler to Floyd, Jan. 16, 1833, Tyler MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 25 

measure of peace and reconciliation, to the intense grati- 
fication of the state rights leaders. 77 

The nullifiers of South Carolina claimed the compro- 
mise tariff as a victory for their cause and for their 
principles. Duff Green declared in the Telegraph that 
nullification had triumphantly forced a settlement of 
the tariff question. 78 But the advocates of conservative 
particularism were filled with sincere gratitude toward 
Clay, ready to give him the full credit for having actu- 
ally averted a civil war. 79 Some of them, regardless of 
differences on points of national policy, were even de- 
sirous of rewarding him at once with the nomination 
for the presidency. 80 

The nullification excitement had hardly begun to 
subside before developments in Jackson's war on the 
United States Bank stirred up general excitement 
throughout the country. As has been seen, the national 
bank was not without its friends in the South. Even 
many anti-tariff state rights men there had favored 
a renewal of the charter, having come to " regard the 

77 Tyler in a speech on April 12, i860, described the scene following 
Clay's resolution: " I occupied an extreme seat on the left, he a similar 
seat on the right of the Senate chamber. We advanced to meet eacn 
other, and grasped each other's hands midway the chamber. It is that 
grasp of hand which has brought me here to-day. It is that noble act 
which immortalized the name of Henry Clay." National Intelligencer, 
April 24, i860. For further information cf. Clay to Clayton, Aug. 22, 
1844, Clayton MSS., printed in Niles' Register, LXVII, 30. 

78 Cf. Charleston Mercury, March 5, 1833, in Niles' Register, XLIV, 
43; U. S. Telegraph, ibid., 33. See also speech of Calhoun, id., LIV, 
199. 

79 Tyler wrote to Governor Floyd, Nov. 21, 1833, advising him as to 
his message: "The measures of last winter will necessarily pass in 
review before you which will afford you an opportunity of paying a 
just compliment to Clay, and thereby greatly conciliate his friends. 
Would it be going too far to represent him as having rescued us from 
civil war, when those who held or ought to have held our destinies in 
their hands talked only of swords and halters — Such is my deliberate 
opinion." Tyler MSS. 

80 Clay, Private Correspondence, 362. 



26 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

continuance of that institution as of almost indispens- 
able necessity ". 81 Cotton planters benefited by its loans 
in handling the " snowy staple of the South " and were 
unwilling to see commercial facilities impaired. United 
States Bank stock, moreover, was regarded in the South 
as a profitable investment. 82 It was regretted that the 
question of recharter had been brought up at the begin- 
ning of the presidential canvass at a time when Jackson, 
who might otherwise have given his approval, was sure 
to regard it as a test of strength to measure his popular- 
ity against that of the bank. 88 Accordingly, when the 
bank bill of July, 1832, was sent up to President Jackson 
and he met it with a veto, his action and the reasons 
assigned for it called forth much criticism, 8 * although 
many felt that the situation demanded the endorsement 
of the president's action. In the campaign, friends of 
the bank in Mississippi proposed to waive all other is- 
sues and to nominate an electoral ticket favorable to a 

81 Mangum to Wm. Gaston, Jan. 19, 1832, Mangum MSS. "Whether 
right or wrong, that Bank is at this time very popular in our State — 
I believe, indeed I know, it has done us vast good and as yet we have 
felt no evils from it. Where is the check upon the State banks if it is 
not to be found here? " J. Iredell to Mangum, Feb. 4, 1832, ibid. 

" For my part although a strict State rights man (even unto nullifi- 
cation if you please) I could never see any constitutional objection to a 
Bk. established by Congress." J. A. Berie to Mangum, April 11, 1834, 
ibid. 

" Senator Poindexter is a Nullifying State Rights man — and yet he 
advocates the National Bank, which the first friends of State Rights 
denounced as unwarranted by the Constitution! " Richmond Enquirer, 
in U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 4, 1834. See also Shipp, Life and Times of 
Wm. H. Crawford, 206-207; Niles' Register, LVI, 225. 

82 Wm. Polk to Mangum, Feb. 1, 1832, Mangum MSS. 

83 Mangum to Wm. Gaston, Jan. 19, 1832, ibid. See Mangum to Wm. 
Polk, Feb. 11, 1832, Wm. Polk MSS. 

** W. R. Hinton, elector on the Jackson-Barbour ticket in North 
Carolina, refused to support Jackson after his veto. He regarded the 
bank as " inseparably connected with the prosperity of the Union, and 
indispensable to the preservation of a sound currency ". Raleigh 
Register, July 27, 1832, in Niles' Register, XLII, 406-407. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 27 

renewal of the charter. 85 Some southerners, too, who 
did not support the proposition for the continuance of 
the existing- institution, favored a restricted new char- 
ter. 88 

But Jackson was not satisfied with simply having 
prevented a renewal of the charter. The next step in 
the bank war was the removal of the government 
deposits from the custody of the bank in the fall of 
1833. It was met by a loud note of protest from 
the South, .though, perhaps, not as strong as that from 
the commercial states of the North. This protest was, 
at the start, based on constitutional grounds, the re- 
moval being branded as an unauthorized usurpation 
of the executive. " The President himself has nulli- 
fied ", it was declared, " a Secretary of the Treasury, 
and the charter of a bank — a solemn contract between 
the stockholders of that institution, and the government 
of which he is the agent." 8T Soon, however, the effect of 
the removal of the deposits began to be felt in the South 
as at least a contributory cause of the deranged cur- 
rency and of the unsettled condition of exchange, which 
soon led to a fall in prices in general, with an especial 
depression of the cotton market, and a serious money 
pressure. 88 This was increased when the United States 
Bank began to curtail its discounts, to call in loans, and 
to take the necessary steps preparatory to the final ad- 
justment of its affairs. 89 It was inevitable that the people 
should begin to lose their blind confidence in Jackson, 
who, as president, had not stopped to consider the con- 



85 Claiborne, Life of Quitman, I, 131. 

86 S. F. Patterson to Mangum, March 1, 1832, Mangum MSS. Cf. 
Mangum to Wm. Polk, Feb. 11, 1832, Wm. Polk MSS. 

87 U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 11, 1834; cf. id., Jan. 2. 

88 Id., Jan. 2, 6, 8, 15, 28, Feb. 25, 1834. 

89 A. Porter to B. H. Harrison, June 9, 1834, Porter MSS. 



28 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

sequences of an act which, it was pointed out, could only 
have been dictated by political considerations, in all 
probability by his anxiety for the political future of 
Martin Van Buren in the strife for the presidential suc- 
cession. 9 * " The people — the South especially — ", de- 
clared the Richmond Whig, " have already paid, in part, 
the penalty of their blind partiality and irrational idol- 
atry of General Jackson, in the overthrow of their prin- 
ciples, and the remainder of the penalty will now be 
exacted, out of their purses." 91 

The inevitable result was a period of tremendous 
excitement. Bitter condemnation was expressed in the 
South in public meetings, 92 in petitions to Congress, and 
in legislative resolutions. The Virginia, Kentucky, and 
Louisiana legislatures officially voiced the sentiment of 
disapproval in those states of the removal of the depos- 
its. An active minority in the Alabama and North 
Carolina legislatures labored to force through resolu- 
tions for a recharter of the bank. 03 The removal of the 
deposits completely revolutionized the politics of Vir- 
ginia. Whereas its legislature had begun the session 
of 1833-1834 with practically a two-thirds administra- 
tion majority, within three months the situation had 

90 U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 2, 8, 1834. Cf. James Love to Critten- 
den, May 27, 1834, Crittenden MSS. 

91 U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 6, 1834. " It is the pecuniary embarrass- 
ment, the great and overwhelming distress consequent upon the re- 
moval of the deposites; which comes home to the people. It is this 
and this alone I believe which has removed the film from the eyes of 
the people. It has appeared to me that nothing short of touching the 
pocket and that rudely would induce the people or any considerable 
portion of them to doubt the infallibility of Jacksonism." S. Hillman 
to Mangum, Feb. 16, 1834, Mangum MSS. 

92 At a meeting at Baltimore, resolutions were passed for the forma- 
tion of a " State Whig Society ". Niles' Register, XLVI, 130. 

88 U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 4, 1834; "W. Montgomery to Mangum, Dec. 
27, 1833, Mangum MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 29 

become completely reversed ; its delegation to Congress 
held a caucus and found itself all but unanimously in 
favor of the restoration of the deposits to the bank ; 
while public opinion was represented as overwhelm- 
ingly anti-Jackson. 94 There was generally throughout 
the South a strong current of popular opinion in vio- 
lent opposition to the position of the administration. 
" The administration had made their calculations ", an- 
nounced a member of Congress from Kentucky. " that 
the hostility of the South to the Bank, and Virginia in 
particular, would make them overlook the right of the 
question — They have been deceived. Virginia has aban- 
doned Jackson and cannot be recovered." 95 The ruinous 
losses suffered by many southerners doubtless " added 
to the detestation felt by ' the best people ' for the Dem- 
ocratic principles and theories ", 96 

The opposition in Congress kept up effective coopera- 
tion in the common cause of checking what they termed 
the arbitrary encroachments and usurpations of the 
executive, of remedying abuses which threatened " to 
absorb all the powers of Government in one, and to 
give to the country a self-willed despot in place of a 
constitutional President ". 9T Calhoun and Tyler worked 
enthusiastically with Clay and Webster to administer 
a rebuke to the determined president ; by their united 

94 Richmond Whig, in U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 14, Feb. 25, 1834; id., 
Jan. 10. 

95 James Love to Crittenden, May 27, 1834, Crittenden MSS. " As 
far as I can hear, the Jackson party is staggering in every direction." 
J. T. Morehead to Crittenden, May 17, 1834, ibid. 

" The best opinion here [Washington] is that before two years all 
the States from Maryland to Alabama inclusive, will be found in 
opposition to Genl. Jackson, or rather to Van Buren." A. Porter to 
J. P. Harrison, Feb. 18, 1834, Porter MSS. 

96 Memoir of Jefferson Davis, by his wife, I, 190. 

97 Baltimore Chronicle, in U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 21, 1834. 



30 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

efforts Clay's resolution of censure was carried through 
the Senate and Jackson's protest kept off the pages of 
the Senate journal. 

Thus, in the spring of 1834, the national Whig party 
was born. Its parents were the anti-tariff and strict- 
construction " Whig " following, largely located in the 
South and under the leadership of Calhoun, and Clay's 
National Republican party. Four years before, when 
the attraction between these extremes was first notice- 
able, when both were young, impetuous, and immature, 
they had offered a mutual but vain resistance to the 
force which was drawing them together. There fol- 
lowed the timid courtship of the summer and fall of 
1832 ; the result was the secret alliance of the following 
winter. If, indeed, it was a strange union, it was 
because it was dictated by political considerations ; it 
never claimed to be a real love match. The offspring 
was of necessity a hybrid. Strangely enough, however, 
it was only during its infancy and youth that its char- 
acteristics betrayed its mongrel origin ; when it reached 
maturity, the qualities inherited from the National 
Republican party asserted an absolute predominance. 

The elements of the Whig party 98 were most hetero- 
geneous — the leading and prominent men often held 
entirely opposite opinions and sentiments upon every 
important question of the period preceding the forma- 
tion of the Whig coalition. Some were in favor of a 

98 It took the name which the opposition had assumed in the local 
contests in the states. It should be clear from the foregoing that the 
term was a favorite with the Calhoun leaders and was openly assumed 
and extensively used by their followers in South Carolina during the 
winter of 1832-1833. Later, the use of the term spread to other states, 
including New York and Connecticut, and soon had a general applica- 
tion to the anti- Jackson party. Niles' Register, XLVI, 101, 131; 
XLVII, 8-9. Cf., however, Sargent, Public Men and Events, I, 262. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 2>i 

protective tariff, others its most bitter opponents ; some 
were for a United States bank, others against a bank 
of any kind ; some were in favor of internal improve- 
ments, others strongly in doubt as to the constitution- 
ality of such a move; besides these, there were some 
former nullifiers who could be expected to revive their 
doctrines upon the proper occasion. The Richmond 
Whig christened it " the ever memorable and blessed 
family compact which gave quiet to South Carolina, 
preserved the peace and integrity of the States and 
tempered the harsh operation of the tariff". 99 The name 
" whig " was regarded as a generic term embracing the 
united opposition. No attempt was made for some 
years at a formulation of principles and policies but its 
object stood out clearly from the beginning — to check 
Jackson and Jacksonian democracy, to " cure the sea of 
Jacksonism." 

" There is a common cause for all the divisions of the 
Union, that should become paramount to every sec- 
tional object. What are the grievances of South Caro- 
lina now, compared with those of the nation ? We ap- 
peal on this head to the speeches of Mr. McDuffie and 
Mr. Clay. The nullifiers of the South have always pro- 
fessed to cherish the Union. Well, then, it is now more 
in danger from the triumph of the Kitchen Cabinet, 
than any other circumstance. Whatever dispute re- 
mains between the Constitutionalists of the North and 
the quondam Nullifiers, may be settled when the com- 
mon enemy is overthrown." 10 ° This was the spirit that 
animated those extremes which cooperated under the 
Whig banner. 

99 National Intelligencer, March 24, 1835. 

100 National Gazette, in U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 2, 1834. 



32 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The Whig party of the South was at this stage, then, 
a combination of former National Republicans, nulli- 
fies and bona fide state rights men of milder stripe, 101 
and Democrats alienated from Jackson for various 
reasons, especially because of the removal of the depos- 
its. They could all have been grouped loosely about 
either Clay or Calhoun. Recognizing the natural lead- 
ership of these two men, it is interesting to notice how 
they looked upon cooperation such as was essential to 
the common cause that had brought them together. 

Calhoun had regarded Clay as a rival even before 
he had broken away from his former nationalistic ideas. 
When Adams was elected president in 1824 Calhoun is 
said to have tried to bargain with him to defeat the 
appointment of Clay to a seat in the cabinet, even offer- 
ing in return the support of the administration by the 
South Carolina delegation. 102 Calhoun came to think of 
Clay, the father of the American system, more and 
more as a mischief maker. 103 But when he found him- 
self without influence in shaping the course of Jack- 
sonian democracy, and finally at odds with the admin- 
istration, he had to consider the possibility of another 
alignment. As Clay noted, South Carolina was rather 
too contracted a position for Calhoun to start from. 104 
But he at first refused to think of a compact with Clay, 
deciding rather to stand aloof from existing party con- 
flicts and to urge his followers to aim simply at a 
discharge of their duty of restoring the constitution. 105 

101 In the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia, it was sometimes still 
called the " State Rights " party or " State Rights Whig " party. 

102 B. F. Perry, Reminiscences, 248-249. 

103 Calhoun Correspondence, 291. 

104 Clay, Private Correspondence, 288. 

105 Calhoun Correspondence, 305, 310. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 33 

Shortly afterwards, however, he was making overtures 
to the friends of Clay in the South, bargaining to get 
the support of Virginia and the states which followed 
her lead in the presidential election, in return for which 
he agreed to leave a clear field for Clay should the 
election be thereby thrown into the House of Represent- 
atives. 106 When this scheme failed, he began to formu- 
late a definite policy. He saw his state rights follow- 
ers in 1833-1834 holding the balance of power in the 
Senate and capable of exerting a strong influence in 
the House ; seeing their strength, he was led to the 
determination not to merge them into one of the great 
parties but to preserve their separate existence. He 
refused to make a choice of evils of that sort and decided 
that " if there is to be Union against the administration, 
it must be Union on our own ground " ; " others may 
rally on us, but we rally on nothing but our doc- 
trines '\ 107 This was not so discouraging to the idea of 
coalition after all. His gratification over the spread of 
state rights led him to exaggerate its strength ; he pre- 
dicted that within a few years it would be the political 
faith of the country and that it would be hailed as the 
great conservative principle of the nation. 108 He hoped 
that he would then be the one to dictate terms. The 
excitement following the removal of the deposits in- 
creased his confidence. He wrote to his brother : " A 
great political revolution is going on. The feeling of 
the North toward the South is rapidly reversing. We 
and our doctrines are daily growing in favour; and 
thousands who but a few months since execrated us, 

106 Clay, Private Correspondence, 332-333. 

10T Calhoun Correspondence, 328, 330. 

108 Calhoun Correspondence, 331, 332; Niles' Register, XLIII, 57. 

4 



34 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

now look to the South, not only for protection against 
the usurpation of the Executive, but also against the 
needy and corrupt in their own section." 109 

So the spring of 1834 found Calhoun working har- 
moniously with the other great opposition leaders. On 
the floor of the Senate he boldly avowed himself a 
Whig, proud to act under a party designation which 
was synonymous to resistance to usurpation. 110 But he 
had yielded little if anything. He was prepared to ac- 
cept the National Republicans as opponents in case a 
crushing defeat for the Jackson and Van Buren party 
should eliminate it from the field. 111 He insisted that 
in the next presidential election the state rights party 
of the South would rally on no man who did not openly 
avow and support their doctrines. For the present he 
was offering his strongest opposition to executive usur- 
pation and misrule but his explanation of executive 
usurpation was unique. He made it an occasion for 
elaborating his state rights doctrines, pointing out that 
such usurpation was the result of the encroachments of 
Congress upon the rights of the states and leading to 
the inevitable conclusion, " That it is only on the eleva- 
tion and commanding position of state rights, that the 

109 Calhoun Correspondence, 331-332- For corroborating evidence see 
U. S. Telegraph, Jan. i, 15, 25, Feb. 3, \, 13, 17, 20, 25, 1834. 
" There is a feeling universally prevailing, that there is more danger to 
be apprehended from the Government becoming a monarchy than from 
nullification — that the centripetal power is much stronger than the 
centrifugal, and that the consolidation of all power in one person is 
eminently more dangerous than any nullification with which we have 
hitherto been threatened." Richmond Whig, in id., Jan. 6, 1834. 

See also Baltimore Chronicle, in id., Feb. 25, 1834; W. Roane to 
Mangum, June 5; C. P. Green to Mangum, March 1, 1836, Mangum 
MSS. 

110 Calhoun, Works, II, 405. 

111 Calhoun Correspondence, 340, 343. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 35 

contest against executive usurpation can be perma- 
nently and successfully maintained ". 112 

The course which circumstances compelled Clay to 
pursue shows that Calhoun's position had certain indis- 
putable elements of strength. When in the height of 
the tariff controversy, the advocates of state sover- 
eignty began to take the advanced ground of the 
nullification doctrine, Clay was not slow in seeing that 
it might have an important effect upon his political 
fortunes. As it weakened the strength of the adminis- 
tration, it was a preliminary move in his favor. But he 
feared that Jackson might counter-balance whatever 
advantage the situation gave him by taking a decisive 
course against the nullifiers and claiming the reward for 
saving the nation. 113 Jackson, however, was slow in 
making known his attitude. This left Clay free to 
strengthen his position; he began to show a marked 
respect for state rights. While he refused to publish 
any exposition of his constitutional principles, he wrote 
to his friend, Francis Brooke, who was in communica- 
tion with the Virginia state rights leaders : " I need not 
say to you that my constitutional doctrines are those 
of the epoch of 1798. I am against all power not dele- 
gated, or not necessary and proper to execute what is 
delegated. I hold to the principles of Mr. Madison, 
as promulgated through the Virginia legislature. I 
was with Mr. Madison then; I am with him now. I 
am against all nullification, all new lights in politics if 
not in religion. Applying the very principles of Mr. 
Madison's famous interpretation of the Constitution, 

™Niles' Register, XLVI, 405-406. Cf. id., XLIX, 198; Calhoun 
Correspondence, 338. 

113 Clay, Private Correspondence, 288. 



36 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

in the Virginia address, I find in the Constitution the 
power to protect our industry and to improve our 
country by objects of a national character. I have never 
altered my [sic] constitutional opinion which I ever 
entertained, and publicly expressed but that in relation 
to the bank ; and the experience of the last war changed 
mine, and almost every other person's, who had been 
against the power of chartering it." U4 

Clay was willing to see Calhoun, by mutual agree- 
ment, carry three or four southern states in 1832, 
hoping that they jointly might break the power of Jack- 
son. 1 " He was shrewd enough to perceive that, acting 
alone, his chances of successful opposition were for 
the time few indeed ; he further realized that, if he could 
but attract into a coalition enough former administration 
men from the South, he need no longer despair. Accord- 
ingly, he a little later found the views of Jackson's 
proclamation to be " too ultra " on the side of consoli- 
dation. 118 In the crisis, when the eyes of the nation 
were fixed upon him in the hopes that he would offer 
a successful plan of settlement, he submitted in Con- 
gress a tariff arrangement which afforded South Caro- 
lina a chance to recover from her hazardous position. 
The state rights men, claiming that the American 
system had been broken up, urged new associations 
for the southern tariff men and recommended a reor- 
ganization of parties upon the old distinctions to combat 
the federalism of Jacksonism. 117 Overtures were made 
to Clay to detach him from the northern nationalists. 118 

114 Clay, Private Correspondence, 288. 
™Ibid., 301. 

116 Ibid., 345- 

117 G. M. Bibb to A. T. Burnley, April 5, 1833, Crittenden MSS. 

118 Floyd to Wm. C. Preston, Nov. 23, 1833, Floyd MSS. 



ORIGINS, 1830-1835 37 

Taking into consideration the accompanying circum- 
stances, there was clearly reasonable ground for the 
cry of coalition that went up and for the charge that 
Clay was bargaining away his principles upon the altar 
of ambition for southern support. 118 

Clay's attention was centered on the southern states 
where he watched the anti-Jackson forces steadily 
growing. He even favored the repeal of certain sec- 
tions of the force bill as an expedient to tranquillize 
the South. One obstacle, however, loomed up before 
the Kentucky politician — that was Calhoun. He knew 
that the latter, as well as himself, was ambitious for 
high office, that the principles of the South Carolinian 
would force him to stand as a sectional candidate, and 
he was convinced from his experience in 1832 that he 
could himself least afford to lose votes in the South. 
Cooperation with Calhoun was naturally a source of 
great discomfort to Clay; he felt at times that the 
nullifiers were doing the cause but little good, but his 
political far-sightedness made him see that the oppo- 
sition needed every accession of strength and that 
sound policy demanded that he and his following should 
sacrifice personal feelings in consideration of the great 
object to be gained. 

Virginia was the only state where the state rights 
men and the former National Republicans were both 
present in sufficient numbers to require a definition of 
their mutual relations. There a sectional division of the 
state determined the situation for a time. The first 
inclination of Clay men in general to support the presi- 
dent's proclamation was modified by the powerful reac- 

U8 Niles' Register, XLIV, 234; Clay, Private Correspondence, 350; 
U. S. Telegraph, Jan. 4, 1834. 



38 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tion against that state paper, which resulted in the 
nationalists of the western section uniting with the 
Jackson men there to uphold it, while a majority of 
the voters of eastern Virginia, irrespective of former 
principles, joined the opposition. Such a coalition was 
natural even under the difficulties that existed, and the 
Clay men of the western counties joined this opposition 
in the east in condemning the arbitrary course of the 
executive with the public deposits. Indeed, the union of 
the nationalists and state rights men had made possible 
the resolutions of the legislature on this subject. 120 

Meantime the news of each victory for the Whig 
party brought rejoicings from all the elements repre- 
sented in it for the " glorious auspices which cheer and 
animate the friends of liberty from every quarter of the 
heavens ". m The war against irresponsible power and 
misrule, against misgovernment and tyranny, was said 
to be bearing fruit. At public dinners the success of 
the common cause was celebrated all over the country ; 
Calhoun was toasted in the same breath with Clay, 
while state rights doctrines were praised by those who 
had always shown themselves most consistent in their 
nationalism. 122 

™Niles' Register, XLV, 388, 410; cf. Richmond Whig, in U. S. Tele- 
graph, Jan. 11, 23, 24, 25, Feb. 13, 15, 1834. 

121 McDuffie to Whig citizens of Warrenton, Virginia. 

122 See account of dinner to Senator Poindexter of Mississippi at 
Lexington, Kentucky, in July, 1835, Niles' Register, XLVIII, 368. 
Also of "Grand Whig Festival" at Baltimore by the Whigs of Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania, Nov. 12, 1835, id., XLIX, 197-200. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Rise of the Whig Party in the South, 
i 836- 1 840. 

If the situation before 1836 had revealed certain 
anomalies in the anti-administration ranks, the future 
had still more in store. It was now to exhibit this 
Whig opposition, increased by a new element, making 
its first presidential contest in the South under the 
banner of a man who had supported each and every 
step which Jackson had taken — every move that had 
tended to lessen the confidence of the nation in its chief 
magistrate. This, too, was done under the slogan of 
resistance to executive usurpation which now came to 
have a still more enlarged definition. Reference is 
made to the campaign of Judge Hugh L. White in the 
South against Van Buren, the official nominee for the 
presidency. 

Even before Jackson had begun his second four 
years of service at the head of the national government, 
his intention to make Van Buren his successor had be- 
come noised about. At once objectors appeared on 
all sides, even among the loudest advocates of Jack- 
sonian democracy. Martin Van Buren was almost the 
last man who could have been expected to stem the 
current in the South which had set in against the party 
in power. There were, to be sure, those who were 
called " collar men ", ready to bow the knee and submit 
their necks to the collar without knowing why or where- 
fore, but it was felt that they were limited to the less 

39 



40 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

intelligent people and were steadily decreasing in num- 
ber. 1 The state rights men always preferred to explain 
their breach with the administration as due to their 
" aversion and even abhorrence " toward Van Buren, 
who came to be denounced as " the Arch Magician, 
abolitionist and political intriguer " and whose corrup- 
tion they considered as more and more verified every 
day. 2 Not only was there this widespread personal 
hostility to Van Buren but, on the other hand, Jackson's 
own course was regarded as a new and arbitrary pro- 
ceeding — this matter of choosing one's successor in 
that high office. The number of those who took this 
view steadily increased but this did not bend the presi- 
dent from his purpose. On the contrary, it soon became 
a matter of general comment that he was making use of 
the vast official patronage of the executive department 
to further his intention. It was inevitable that the 
leaders within the party who had more or less definite 
presidential aspirations should be chagrined at this 
and inclined to join the number of the disaffected. 
While matters were in this condition, Senator White of 
Tennessee yielded to the request of the delegation from 
his state and announced his willingness to make the 
contest for the presidency. 3 

Thus far Jackson had apparently suffered but little in 
his home state from his course on the bank and on nulli- 
fication. There the politicians held sway and they saw 
to it that the state remained on the loyal side. But when 
it is realized that Tennessee's presidential vote in 1836 
was more than double that of the previous election, it 

1 B. B. Smith to Mangum, May 27, 1836; cf. S. Hillman to Mangum, 
Feb. 16, 1834, Mangum MSS. 

2 Mangum to John Bell, June 15, 1835, etc., ibid. 

3 Scott, Memoir of H. L. White, 330; Niles' Register, XLVIII, 39. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 41 

becomes clear that there must have been a large " stay- 
at-home vote ", evidently not in sympathy with Jack- 
sonian democracy as it could not be brought to the 
polls even by the intense local excitement in the inter- 
est of " Old Hickory "/ 

As president, moreover, Jackson had distributed the 
rewards for fidelity among his active supporters with 
absolute disregard for impartiality. Polk and Grundy 
and others had received the confidence and favor of the 
administration, while John Bell and the friends of 
Judge White had to a large extent been overlooked. 
This favoritism caused a gradual estrangement of the 
latter group from the administration. As soon as Jack- 
son perceived this lukewarmness, his partiality in- 
creased and reconciliation grew more and more impos- 
sible. The decision was reached on the part of the 
White supporters that their popular senator was, on 
general political principles as on all other grounds, 
preferable to Van Buren for the next presidency; so 
they prepared to push his candidacy even at the risk 
of a rupture with the executive. They tried to make it 
clear, however, that he was put forward as the repre- 
sentative of all those democratic principles which had 
brought Jackson into office and that no antagonism was 
necessarily intended to the president whose administra- 
tion they had consistently supported. 6 

Judge White was a strict constructionist of the purest 
type. He had an exaggerated fear of federalism and 
consistently opposed on constitutional grounds a na- 

4 Cf. Caldwell, "John Bell of Tennessee", in Am. Hist. Rev., IV, 
657. 

5 Cf. Bell's Vauxhall speech, Nashville Banner, June 15, 1835, in 
Niles' Register, XL VIII, 330-336; also his address to the editor of the 
Nashville Republican, May 4, 1835, in ibid., 229-232. 



42 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tional bank, a protective tariff, and internal improve- 
ments by the national government. He had been Jack- 
son's confidential adviser in the early part of his first 
administration but had been superseded by the so-called 
" kitchen cabinet ". Retiring gracefully, he remained a 
loyal supporter of the president but was always suspi- 
cious of his close relations with Van Buren, which 
caused a gradual estrangement. 7 

The movement to repudiate Jackson's choice for a 
successor spread, and concentrated in the South on 
White as the opposing candidate. It acquired a sound 
basis when, in 1835, b°th the Alabama and Tennessee 
legislatures passed resolutions formally nominating 
him for the presidency. 8 Jackson did all he could to 
stem the tide. On February 23, 1835, he wrote a letter 
denying that he had interfered with the free choice by 
the people of a presidential candidate. 9 White and his 
friends were denounced by the official organ 10 and 
newspapers were established in Tennessee to combat the 
heresy. But the movement acquired such strength that 
it soon became the most formidable factor of the oppo- 
sition to Van Buren in the South. 

This new group of anti-administration men, who 
had hitherto been careful not to incur Jackson's dis- 
pleasure, had much in common with those advocates 
of particularism who had broken away from him in the 
nullification period. Under the circumstances the state 
rights men, except in South Carolina where they could 

6 Scott, Memoir of H. L. White, 73-76, 78-81; cf. his letter to Sherrod 
Williams, July 2, 1836, Niles' Register, LI, 44. 

7 Scott, op. cit., 246, 251. 

8 Niles' Register, XLVII, 378; Scott, op. cit., 331-332. 

9 Niles' Register, XLVIII, 80-81. 

10 Washington Globe, April 13, 15, etc., 1835; Niles' Register, XLIX, 
294, 337, 376. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 43 

not forget White's vote on the Force Bill, naturally 
came at once to his support. 11 

But the course of the nationalists was more uncer- 
tain. Except in Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, 
Louisiana, and perhaps Virginia, they found themselves 
outnumbered by the other opposition factions. In the 
first three states they went for Harrison, the regular 
candidate of the northern Whigs. The Virginia 
nationals solved their peculiar problems in convention 
by nominating Harrison and Tyler and then adopting 
the regular White electoral ticket. 12 But elsewhere in 
the South they followed the majority and supported 
White, it being evident that except by union and har- 
mony they could not expect to defeat Van Buren. The 
great rally-cry had become "Anything to beat Van 
Buren **. Clay himself favored White as a separate 
opposition candidate for the South, hoping that the 
election might thereby be thrown into the House and 
Van Buren's defeat secured. 13 Even should White be 
elected, he and his friends considered it a lesser evil 
than the success of the " designated heir "." 

Jackson and his press characterized the opposition 
at this time as " White-whiggery ", a combination of 
" federalists, nullifiers, and new born whigs ", a " Holy 

11 Id., XLVIII, 264; Tyler, Tylers, I, 516-517; Gilmer, First Settlers of 
Upper Georgia, 501-502. 

12 Niles' Register, L, 330. Tyler was the favorite Whig candidate in 
the South for the vice-presidency. There was little interest, however, in 
this phase of the contest. See R. B. Gillian to Mangum, April 1, 1836, 
Mangum MSS. 

13 Clay, Private Correspondence, 394-395; Coleman, Life of J. J. Crit- 
tenden, I, 89. 

14 Crittenden, writing to J. T. Morehead, Dec. 23, 1835, commended 
" the common object of checking the dictated succession and changing 
the Dynasty. ... To some extent the friends of White and Harrison 
have, as I have before stated, a common object, namely, to defeat Van 
Burenism, and this common object is a point of union for them." Crit- 
tenden MSS. 



44 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Alliance between bankism and nullification under a 
White banner ", 15 The " new born " element extended 
the party to Tennessee and added to its strength else- 
where. During the summer the results of the state 
elections in Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisiana, Ala- 
bama, and Missouri gave promise of the defeat of the 
candidate of presidential dictation. 19 On the other hand, 
the southern Whigs had to meet the charges of the 
Van Buren papers and stump speakers that their sole 
object was to carry the election into the House in order 
that General Harrison might be made president — 
in other words, that Judge White was a mere tool to 
effect this object." This was, perhaps, the result of 
a natural inclination on the part of the Whigs in the 
South to defend Harrison against the charges of the 
" Van Burenites " and to prepare themselves for action 
if the choice of a president went to the House. 18 

But the election of the chief magistrate was settled 
by the popular vote without further contest. Of the 
southern states, Georgia and Tennessee voted for 
White while Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware cast 
their votes for Harrison. Elsewhere in the South Van 
Buren, with the enormous advantage that the control 
of the government patronage gave him, 19 was able to 
hold his own, but with very slight majorities in Missis- 
sippi and Louisiana. South Carolina paid her respects 
to the opposition through her legislature by giving her 

™Niles' Register, XLVIII, 75; XLIX, 187, 210; LI, 169. 
10 Savannah Republican, Aug. 29, 1836. 

17 North Carolina Star in Savannah Republican, Oct. 13, 1836; State 
Rights Sentinel, in id., Nov. 3, 1836. Cf. B. Reeves to Crittenden, Jan. 
13, 1836, Crittenden MSS. 

18 Savannah Republican, Oct. 19, 20, Nov. 28, 1836. 

18 See H. Potter to Mangum, Dec. 31, 1834, Mangum MSS.; G. M. 
Bibb to A. T. Burnley, April 5, 1835, Crittenden MSS..; Tyler to son, 
Feb. is, 1836, Tyler MSS. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 45 

eleven electoral votes to Willie P. Mangum of North 
Carolina. 

The election of 1836 thoroughly convinced Calhoun 
that he could not mould the Whig party to his will. 
The northern wing had shown itself settled in its 
nationalist convictions ; in the South, part had followed 
this lead while the rest cooperated under a proclama- 
tion man whom South Carolina refused to support. 
Clay, moreover, found Calhoun an obstacle to con- 
certed action and union among the opposition in Con- 
gress 20 and the latter in turn realized that his own 
sacrifices for the sake of coalition had brought none 
of the results for which he had hoped. The situation 
seemed to require a new alignment for Calhoun and 
developments shortly furnished the opportunity. 

The Democratic party under a new president offered 
new attractions to state rights men, who saw less 
plausibility in the cry of executive usurpation as 
applied to Van Buren. His inaugural address, with 
the conservative doctrines it announced, seemed 
framed with the very object of conciliating these 
southerners. 21 The Democrats, indeed, began a sys- 
tematic campaign to show the state rights men that 
the difference between their respective principles was 
one of degree rather than of kind, that nullification 
was now only a memory, a mere abstraction of theory, 
and that parties would of necessity settle down on 
original bed-rock principles. The Democratic Review 
admitted that the stream of executive action had for 
a time been dangerously swollen but believed that it 
had now subsided to low water mark and was no 
longer a menace. It admitted that the Democratic 

20 Clay, Private Correspondence, 412. 

21 National Intelligencer, March 6, 1837. 



46 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

party had temporarily forgotten its own vital and 
conservative principles of pure democracy, and had 
tended toward consolidation of power about the federal 
administration, but it promised that the Democrats 
would abstain from a course that had already proved 
disastrous. 22 Henceforth, the essential opposition of 
principles would stand out as the line of division 
between the two great parties and a reorganization 
of parties on their true national grounds with many 
former Whigs ranged under the Democratic banner 
was expected. As a further inducement to former 
nullifiers, the Democrats explained that, though advo- 
cating the supremacy of the majority, they had a 
strong sympathy with minorities and agreed that 
minority rights should have a high moral claim on 
the respect and justice of majorities. 23 

The struggle over the administration's sub-treasury 
measure furnished the occasion for such reorganiza- 
tion. Calhoun saw that continued alliance with the 
Whigs would mean the absorption of his followers 
and his own political annihilation, that coalition with 
the party in power was better calculated to further the 
principles which he and his following regarded as 
essential. Therefore, asserting his independent politi- 
cal position, he embraced the opportunity which his 
endorsement of Van Buren's financial remedy gave him 
and shifted his relations accordingly. Now that the 
danger of executive usurpation was over he saw in 
the proposal for a national bank as a remedy for the 
financial disarrangements of the day renewed danger 
of legislative encroachment. This he considered espe- 

22 Democratic Review, III, 9, 287. 

23 Id., I, 1-2, 3. 



^^ 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 47 

cially to be feared, so he broke off his alliance with the 
Whig party. 24 As at an earlier date, after having done 
his utmost to overthrow the protective system and to 
put an end to legislative usurpation, he had not hesi- 
tated to join the authors of that system in order to 
arrest the encroachments of the executive, so now he 
saw absolutely no reason for not rejoining his old allies 
of 1827, most of whom had continued to profess, if 
not to practise, the republican principles for which he 
was laboring. He found his new associates more con- 
genial also in that their northern wing was, as a body, 
immeasurably more congenial than their opponents on 
the growing question of slavery, for after all his shift 
was a renewed appeal to the sectional interests of the 
South. 

In Calhoun's own state this step was made easy by 
a reconciliation between the two local parties at the 
time when he was reelected to the United States Sen- 
ate. 25 The question of the right of state interposition 
had long been shelved as a political issue and he was 
soon uniting with Poinsett and other Union leaders 
to punish recalcitrant Democrats M as well as those who 
refused to follow him into the Democratic party. He 
took the stump, but in vain, against Waddy Thompson, 
a fellow-null ifier of 1832, who had broken with him 
over the sub-treasury, and began the arbitrary control 
over South Carolina politics that he continued to exer- 
cise until his death, crushing out all independence of 

24 Calhoun Correspondence^ 409; Niles' Register, LIII, 87; Register of 
Debates, XIV, pt. I, 176. He was rigorously denounced by the Whigs 
as an apostate. Cf. C. Wickliffe to Crittenden, Jan. 13, 1838, Crittenden 
MSS. 

23 Niles' Register, XLVII, 261; Charleston Mercury, Dec. 14, 1836. 

26 Calhoun Correspondence, 407. 



48 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

thought or action in those under him." If he did not 
entirely harmonize the two elements of the Democratic 
party there, he did keep them more or less strictly sub- 
ordinate to his own policies. 28 Whiggery no longer had 
an important place in South Carolina politics and that 
state will henceforth require little consideration in 
this discussion. 39 

In making this new alignment, Calhoun naturally 
carried with him a considerable following not only 
in South Carolina but throughout the South as well. 
The sub-treasury scheme was aptly called by some who 
opposed his action, " the ' Carolina Gap ', through 
which we are to pass to Van Buren ". so In Virginia, 
R. M. T. Hunter, W. F. Gordon, Littleton W. Tazewell, 
and other leaders who inclined to the South Carolina 
exposition transferred their allegiance to the adminis- 
tration party. 81 John A. Quitman of Mississippi, realiz- 
ing his radical disagreement with the nationals in the 
Whig party on every essential political tenet, and loudly 
advocating the independent treasury scheme, joined 
forces with the " genuine Republicans ". 82 

In Alabama the general body of state rights men fol- 
lowed the same course under such leaders as Dixon H. 

27 B. F. Perry, Reminiscences, 48-49, 57, 298. 

28 Calhoun Correspondence, 451-454, 816-828. 

29 Such prominent state rights leaders, however, as Senator Preston 
and Waddy Thompson refused to follow Calhoun in this shift. Among 
the other prominent South Carolinians who were henceforth consistent 
in their whiggery were Hugh S. Legare and James L. Petigru of 
Charleston. 

80 It was called "the Trojan horse, in whose bowels Van Buren- 
ism is to be introduced into our citadel ". Niles' Register, LV, 79. 
There were in Congress at this time eleven sub-treasury Whigs from the 
South. Whig Almanac, 1839, PP- 5, 6. 

31 Calhoun Correspondence, 436; Tyler, Tylers, I, 584-586. 

32 Claiborne, Life and Correspondence of Quitman, I, 168, 214; 
Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 353. 



™™ 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 49 

Lewis in Congress and J. M. Calhoun in the state. 33 
There as elsewhere they had never been an integral part 
of the Whig party; hence they were won over to the 
Democrats by their bids for support. This coalition re- 
sulted in a permanent loss to the Whigs of this wing be- 
cause of the careful distribution of rewards by the Dem- 
ocratic leaders, many county Democratic tickets being 
formed of state rights men, while J. M. Calhoun was 
elected president of the Alabama senate as a recognition 
of the alliance. 34 In Alabama as in South Carolina the 
shift was one that extended down to the ordinary voter 
and a permanent Democratic control there was prac- 
tically assured. 

By such desertion, too, the North Carolina Whigs 
lost two of their representatives in Congress, Sawyer 
and Shepard. In Georgia, state rights men like Haral- 
son refused to have close relations with the faction 
which favored a national bank, a protective tariff, and 
internal improvements. He found it easy to be elected 
to the state senate as a sub-treasury man and developed 
into a strong Democrat and a leader in that party. 35 
Somewhat later three state rights Whig congressmen 
from Georgia, Colquitt, Black, and Cooper, who had 
been elected by their party on the general ticket system, 
declared for Van Buren upon similar grounds. 38 

The Democrats welcomed this new accession with 
open arms. Its leaders were given prominent positions 
in the party and in the offices which it controlled, even 

33 Garrett, Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama, 63. 

34 Ibid., 63, 64, 158- 

35 Wheeler, History of Congress, I, 252-25',. 

30 Niles' Register, LIX, 101. Cf. H. L. Benning to Cobb, May 18, 
1840, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence (Am. Hist. Assoc, 
Annual Report, 191 1, II). 



50 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

to the exclusion of the regulars. With few exceptions 
those state rights members of Congress who had 
deserted the Whigs because the latter opposed the sub- 
treasury were given the support of the Democrats in 
their contests for reelection. Those who were returned 
to their seats soon proved strong champions of Democ- 
racy. Under the circumstances this was a prominent 
factor in giving a new tone and character to the prin- 
ciples of that party; greater respect was evident for 
the arguments which lay at the basis of the nullification 
doctrine. 37 The party which had hitherto lacked great 
leaders in the southern states very readily accepted the 
growing prominence of men like Mason, Quitman, and 
Calhoun. 

But this shifting of allegiance did not mean a trans- 
fer of the whole state rights element to the adminis- 
tration party. Except in South Carolina and Alabama 
it probably included but a small minority of the state 
rights men — of leaders as well as of rank and file. 
Many believed firmly that Calhoun's motives were 
exclusively selfish and ambitious and dictated by 
jealousy of Clay's good fortunes. These state rights 
Whigs refused to follow Calhoun, to " raise unceasing 
hosannas to Bentonian humbuggery ", or to surround 
themselves by " supporters of the bloody bill, by the 
expungers, by all that faithless and atrocious crew ". 38 

37 Calhoun Correspondence, 435. 

38 Tyler, Tylers, I, 586; II, 295, 700. Wm. C. Preston wrote to Tyler, 
Dec. 30, 1837: " Mr. Calhoun has supposed that he could carry North 
Carolina and Georgia as well as our own State. In this he has been 
vastly mistaken. The State-rights party of North Carolina stands firm, 
and in Georgia we have not lost a man from our friend Gilmer down, 
and he writes cheeringly that the Whigs will carry that State at the next 
election." Id., I, 586-587. Cf. Crittenden to Mangum, Oct. 11, 1837, 
Mangum MSS. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 51 

It is clear, however, that the Whigs lost many of the 
extreme particularists. 

Although the sub-treasury scheme worked havoc 
with party lines in the South, it clearly failed to secure 
the unanimous approval of that section. The national 
bank still had its southern supporters who, however, 
recognizing themselves to be in a minority, were content 
with quietly expressing their preference. Many others 
favored the use of state banks by the treasury depart- 
ment as the least dangerous solution of the bank ques- 
tion, asserting that the states clearly had the power to in- 
corporate them. To both of these groups a treasury bank 
was especially to be feared as an alarming extension 
of executive power in the hands of a man like Van 
Buren. Judge White of Tennessee even offered a 
scheme by which all constitutional limitations could be 
avoided and the scruples of both elements of the oppo- 
sition respected. He proposed to have Congress charter 
a national bank to do business in the District of Colum- 
bia, authorizing it at the same time to connect itself 
with selected banks in each state with the consent of 
the respective states ; these were to perform many of 
the functions of the former branch banks; the whole 
arrangement was intended to give all the advantageous 

results that the old Bank of the United States had 

39 
given. 

The administration party also suffered from defec- 
tion. Many who had been drawn close to Jackson by 
his pet bank policy were taken aback by Van Buren's 
suggestion of divorcing the government from the banks. 
There was a considerable body of " conservatives " in 

39 Niles' Register, LIII, 10. 



52 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Congress, including William C. Rives in the Senate and 
several in the House from Virginia, South Carolina, and 
Georgia, who said that the sub-treasury was at war with 
the jealous republican principles of 1798 and 1799 and 
who favored a regulated system of deposits in state 
banks. 40 Rives and his Virginia supporters were given 
to understand that there was no room for them in the 
Democratic party as long as they were not disposed 
to lend a liberal support to the administration. In reply 
they announced uncompromising hostility to Van Buren 
and his satellites. 41 Once thrown into the opposition 
they naturally joined the Whigs after the nominations 
for the presidential election of 1840 were announced. 42 
Rives received his reward from the Virginia Whigs 
even before he had satisfied all of his orthodoxy, and 
elsewhere the southern conservative leaders were given 
high recognition. 

The elections of 1838 were a fair key to the results 
of this reshaping of parties. The issue in the South was 
largely the independent treasury. The returns showed 
clearly that the Whigs were not entirely the losers. 
Early in the year reports from Virginia showed a 
sweeping Whig victory which ensured complete control 
of the legislature ; in August the occurrence was re- 
peated in North Carolina where increased majorities 
were piled up. Georgia and Louisiana returned solid 
Whig delegations to Congress as a result of the elec- 
tions there — in the former by the general ticket method. 
In Mississippi, also, the Whigs won a sweeping victory 
under the leadership of S. S. Prentiss, who in 1837 had 

40 N ties' Register, LVI, 398. 

41 Id., LV, 375; LVI, 270. 
*Id., LVIIL 5-10. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 53 

contested the state election over the issue of the national 
bank. In South Carolina and Alabama alone had the 
Democrats shown themselves able to hold their own 
and in both of these states their strength was largely 
the result of the new alignment of the state rights men. 

But the problem of a financial remedy had not reached 
a solution before the presidential election came up for 
the consideration of the nation. Preparations were 
begun early; indeed, it was already understood that 
Van Buren would stand for reelection and the Whigs 
alone had the problem of sorting out a candidate. Im- 
pressed by their defeat in 1836 with the imperative 
necessity for union of the factions under one chief, the 
southern Whigs turned more and more to Clay. Though 
his availability was very much open to doubt in 1836, 
since that time he stood out still more prominently as 
the recognized leader of the opposition. 43 He had more 
or less deliberately assumed an attitude which was cal- 
culated to increase his popularity in the South where he 
had always been weakest. 

Except in Maryland, Kentucky, and Louisiana, 
southern Whigs were still predominatingly strict con- 
structionists — -anti-bank, anti-tariff, and anti-internal 
improvement men. But Clay had changed his policy 
since 1832 when he had declared that "to preserve, 
maintain and strengthen the American System, he 
would defy the South, the President, and the devil ". 
His connection with the compromise tariff and his later 

43 Dem. Rev., Ill, 297-298. " The Whigs of Virginia prefer him to 
any other man living; the old Jackson party almost to a man, (in this 
region) hold this language to us, ' Give us Mr. Clay and we shall be 
satisfied'". C. Dorman to Crittenden, Dec. 10, 1837, Crittenden MSS. 
Cf. H. C. Jones to Mangum, Dec. 22, 1837; Clay to Mangum, Dec. 10, 
1837, Mangum MSS. 



54 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

political course strengthened his position in the South. 
Southern Whigs who differed from Clay in the matter 
of political principle expressed high admiration for him 
as an accomplished statesman and even urged his claims 
to the presidency. 44 

The South was given to understand, moreover, that 
the American system was an abandoned issue ; that Clay 
was willing to see the compromise tariff remain as a 
permanent adjustment, the measure of the amount of 
protection he was willing to concede to the manufac- 
turing interests ; that while he favored internal improve- 
ments for general and national objects, now that the 
states had actively taken up the work the federal gov- 
ernment ought not to exert itself in that direction ; and 
that, as regards a national bank, he should not urge the 
establishment of another without a call from the people 
for action, for although he favored such an institu- 
tion with guarded and restricted powers, if the people 
wanted state banks he was entirely satisfied. 45 

Given to choose between the man who had made such 
declarations and the present executive, even particular- 
ists like John Tyler, William C. Preston, and Hugh L. 

44 Poindexter to F. Huston, March 9, 1834. Miss. Hist. Soc, Publi- 
cations, IV, 333; Wm. C. Preston to Tyler, Dec. 30, 1837,. Tyler, Tylers, 
I, S8 7 . 

" His is the only name that affords any hope of relief from the present 
dynasty. . . . Mr. Clay entertains many opinions which I believe to be 
fundamentally erroneous — and if he were president the hopes of the 
country would be in his sound sense — his high character, his bold and 
free spirit — and that broad and zealous patriotism which eminently 
belongs to him. — In these essential particulars there is no man of the 
administration party at all his equal, — and as to his wrong opinions they 
share them all in common with him, — and heresies that are notoriously 
destitute of all principle whatsoever." Wm. C. Preston to H. M. Bowyer, 
Jan. 11, 1839; cf. Dec. 25, 1838 (?), Preston MSS. 

45 See Wise, Seven Decades, 162-169; Tyler, Tylers, I, 601-602; William 
and Mary Qtly., XVIII, 223-224. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 55 

White saw no reason to hesitate. 4 " White declared Clay 
preferable to Van Buren on several counts, especially 
in regard to financial policy, attitude toward executive 
power and patronage, and general motives.* 7 Clay was 
remembered as " the great pacificator " who was on all 
occasions ready to sacrifice personal and party advan- 
tages for the general peace and welfare of the country. 
He was, moreover, a southerner representing a slave 
state and was generally believed to occupy a satisfactory 
position on slavery. So it came to be regarded as a 
certainty by southern Whigs that Clay would be the 
candidate of the opposition and they were generally 
reconciled to it — some were even enthusiastic over it. 
After all, they said, the great and paramount question 
of the day is the question of executive power; in that 
regard this is the worst administration that ever cursed 
a free country and merits unabated hostility; our only 
hopes are in a change of dynasty : " let us expel the 
Stuarts whoever may replace them 'V s Henry A. Wise 
of Virginia declared more emphatically : " I would 
choose any decent white man in the nation to be presi- 
dent in preference to Martin Van Buren." * Legare of 
South Carolina, who only shortly before had been 
driven from the administration party, became a willing 
worker in the ranks of the opposition. 

48 Niles' Register, LVI, 275-276. 

47 Scott, Memoir of H. L. White, 356-366; Niles' Register, LV, 8-9; 
White to Crittenden, Sept. 1, 1838, Crittenden MSS. 

48 Senator Preston to Whigs of Halifax Co., Va., on July 14, 1838, 
Niles' Register, LIV, 392-393. 

49 Niles' Register, LVIII, 103. B. W. Leigh was anxious to rid the 
country of " the plunderers, the knaves, the blackguards, and fools " 
with whom the administration was infested. J. Campbell to Crittenden, 
July 12, 1839, Crittenden MSS. He preferred the election of Clay. B. 
W. Leigh to Crittenden, June 5, 1838, ibid. 



56 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

This willingness to fight under Clay's banner with 
the object of displacing the president was openly 
avowed by the Whigs in several of the southern states. 
By 1838, his name was posted as the Whig candidate 
by several southern Whig newspapers. 50 Early in 1839 
the Mississippi Whig convention selected delegates in- 
structed to vote for Clay and Tyler to represent the 
state in the national convention at Harrisburg, and the 
Whigs in the Louisiana legislature named Clay as their 
first choice. 51 By the fall of the year, state conventions 
in Alabama, Virginia, and North Carolina had also 
expressed their preferences for him. South Carolina 
was by this time of course an impossibility; the situa- 
tion in Georgia requires special treatment. 

As local conditions in that state made strict construc- 
tion doctrines generally popular, politics there had in 
great part existed on a personal basis, the parties group- 
ing themselves about certain leaders largely on social 
and economic grounds and without any real connection 
with national parties. This situation continued until 
about 1833 or J 834 when a readjustment took place and 
a loose connection with the national anti-Jackson party 
was established by the " State Rights " party on the 
basis of opposition to the president's proclamation and 
the force bill. 52 The " State Rights " party still con- 
tinued, however, under the same name and in a great 
degree unaffected by the coalition. 53 Its members suc- 
cessfully supported White in the state in 1836, and later 

50 C. M. Noland to Crittenden, Feb. 4, 1838, Crittenden MSS.; 
Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 353. 

51 National Intelligencer, March 30, 1839; Niles' Register, LV, 385. 

52 Niles' Register, LIII, 146; Gilmer, First Settlers of Upper Georgia, 
561. Cf. Phillips, Georgia and State Rights, 137-138. 

53 Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 16. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 57 

won important victories in .the local elections, but they 
retained their independent position and in 1839 an- 
nounced the name of their leader, George M. Troup, as 
candidate for the presidency. 34 Their opponents alleged 
that this nomination was a ruse to neutralize the state 
and to keep it from Van Buren as it was known that 
Clay could not carry it ; in reply the Troup men declared 
that the move was a sincere one growing out of the 
necessities of the situation, that their principles required 
them to stand aloof from both parties, Clay being a 
known enemy and Van Buren a traitor to their cause. 55 
Events were, however, to upset the calculations of the 
southern Whigs by bringing the nomination of a can- 
didate to head their ticket about whom they had done 
but little thinking. The Harrisburg convention in 
December, 1839, eliminated their favorite candidate. It 
offered them in Harrison a popular military hero upon 
whom it was hoped that the opposition could concen- 
trate without undue concessions of principle, and in 
Tyler as nominee for the vice-presidency an added 
inducement to the friends of state rights and strict 
construction. 56 As they realized the difficulty of har- 
monizing on general principles, to say nothing of 
agreeing on a series of measures to which the party 
would be committed, the party managers wisely re- 
frained from issuing a party platform. Southern Whig 
leaders, and Tyler as much as any of them, were sorely 
disappointed with the nomination for the presidency, 
but most of them decided to accept the situation with as 

54 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, June 25, 1839; Niles' Register, 
LXVI, 306. 

55 Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 137. 

56 Cf. Wise, Seven Decades, 175. 



58 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

much grace as possible and to essay the task of stirring 
up enthusiasm for Harrison. 57 

The Whig party in the South, as will be shown later, 
drew largely upon those elements in the community 
which, by virtue of wealth and social position, were 
separated from the " common people ". In other words, 
for one reason or another, it attracted to itself the aristo- 
cratic members of the planting and slave-owning class. 
Of this the leaders were generally aware. They could 
not but have realized the necessity of attracting other 
elements to their political organization if they were to 
plan on building up a party majority in the South. For 
they were otherwise doomed to a hopeless minority.'* 
Accordingly, even before the national convention at 
Harrisburg, certain Clay men had had the foresight 
to see that while the southern Whigs preferred Clay, 
they could not secure for him the vote of the South. 
" The Whigs could only triumph ", wrote a Clay man, 
" by concentrating upon Harrison and keeping him 
alone before the people. The great mass have points 
of contact and sympathy with men of Harrison's calibre 
and of his character and reputation which do not attract 
them to the orator and statesman." " Such considera- 
tions of policy made it easier to dispel the disappoint- 
ment at the nomination of " Old Tip ". Preparations 
were soon under way for an active canvass. It was a 
critical contest ; as Preston declared, " The hurrah ! is 
with us. Our final destiny is at stake for if Harrison 

57 National Intelligencer, Dec. 14, 1839; A. Bullitt to Crittenden, Dec. 
21, 1839, Crittenden MSS. Calhoun at first predicted that Harrison's 
nomination would throw off the whole southern division of the party. 
Calhoun Correspondence, 435, 437. 

58 P. H. Mangum to W. P. Mangum, Jan. 17, 1836, Mangum MSS. 

69 J. J. Marshall to Crittenden, April 23, 1839; cf. Crittenden to Or- 
lando Brown, Jan. 7, 1838, Crittenden MSS. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 59 

cannot be elected the Whigs will never attempt another 
rally." 60 Clay generously contributed his share toward 
the election of Harrison, his successful rival for the 
Whig nomination. 

The " hurrah " campaign was soon in full swing and 
the excitement was kept alive by the usual expedients. 
As there were few large cities in the South and those 
separated by considerable distances, 61 it was very diffi- 
cult for southern Whig politicians to assemble such 
monster mass meetings as came together in the North 
and West. But the leaders worked with marvelous 
energy and brought together enormous and enthusiastic 
crowds at St. Louis, Raleigh, Tuscaloosa, and several 
other places. The feature of the canvass, however, was 
the great southwestern convention at Nashville where 
a hundred thousand people gathered from several states 
and were provided with the best of entertainment 
including the oratorical efforts of Clay and Crittenden. 62 

The character of the campaign was such as to attract 
a large new element to the Whig party. In the South, 
as in the North, that sturdy democratic element which 
had felt the sting of the unfortunate reference to the 
" log-cabin, hard-cider candidate " rallied around the 
standard of the leader whose personality embodied so 
many of their own ideals. With them cooperated many 
from the working classes who had previously been held 
to the support of Van Buren largely by the appeal to 
their social and economic position in the outcry of the 
Democratic leaders — " the people against the banks, 

60 Wm. C. Preston to Wilde, March 29, 1840, Preston MSS. 

61 See census of cities in 1840, Niles' Register, LXI, 113; Twelfth 
Census (1900), Population, I, 430, 431. 

02 Niles' Register, LIX, 8-10; Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 
119-127. 



60 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

against the rich ". 63 It is easy to understand, on the 
other hand, that many southern Whigs with their aristo- 
cratic inclinations privately regarded all this " hulla- 
baloo " as disgusting and criticized the use of such 
measures to gain popular support.* 4 Those who took 
this view, however, either outgrew this objection in the 
growing enthusiasm of the campaign or they kept their 
opinions to themselves. 

Georgia was the last southern state to swing into 
line. Even after a convention of the State Rights 
Whig party had refused to support either Harrison or 
Van Buren, and in spite of the inclination of ex-Gov- 
ernor Troup, their nominee, to favor Van Buren over 
his opponent, Troup's name was withdrawn and a Har- 
rison convention at Milledgeville on the first of June 
appointed an electoral ticket headed by George R. Gil- 
mer, a champion of state rights and a recent governor. 85 
The state rights men were soon actively engaged in 
the canvass — the great struggle for political deliver- 
ance. The following is an account of a Whig meeting 
at Macon, which is typical of the method of electioneer- 
ing generally resorted to in this canvass: 

Last night the Tips had a great celebration here and of a 
kind peculiar to themselves. Their club room was illuminated 
at an early hour and soon after the house was filled to over- 

6a Niles' Register, LV, 311; LVI, 250. See also H. Potter to Mangum, 
Dec. 31, 1834, Mangum MSS. 

64 Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, II, 182; Shields, Life of Prentiss, 300; 
Miss. Hist. Soc, Publications, IX, 180. 

65 This action was taken under the direction of J. M. Berrien. Gilmer, 
First Settlers of Upper Georgia, 571; Niles' Register, LVII, 322, LVIII, 
181, 230. By the middle of May, there was " no room left for reasonable 
doubt that that party [State Rights] will go for the Harrisburg nomina- 
tion, and jump at once from Nullification to a Tariff, a Bank, and 
Federalism at large ". H. L. Benning to Cobb, May 18, 1840, Toombs. 
Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence, 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 61 

flowing with men, women and children. By the bye, this way 
of making politicians of their women is something new under 
the sun. But so it is they go to the strife. A select set of 
singers then sing a Tip song. Their orator then edifies his 
audience for two hours on the rascality of Van Buren and all 
his friends. . . . Another song, then another speech and 
another song. And so they carry on. 66 

As the southern Whig leaders had tacitly agreed at 
Harrisburg to leave out of consideration their individual 
preferences as to measures, so these matters were laid 
aside during the campaign and the emphasis was placed 
upon the personality and private worth of their stand- 
ard-bearer. All over the South it was shown that Harri- 
son was a genuine Jeffersonian Democrat, that he and 
his supporters stood for the faith of the fathers of 1798 
and 1799, while Van Buren and the corruptionists rep- 
resented a new-fangled and perverted type. This was 
the burden of Clay's and Crittenden's speeches at the 
Nashville meeting and of Henry A. Wise's numerous 
addresses during the campaign. It was the keynote of 
the resolutions and addresses which issued from Whig 
conventions and meetings in Virginia, North Carolina, 
Georgia, and all the other southern states. 67 " Martin 
Van Buren a pure Democrat ! " exclaimed Crittenden, 
" Great God, what a pedigree for Democrats to refer 
to hereafter." 68 Harrison himself declared that the 

66 A. P. Powers to Cobb, Oct. [ ], 1840, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence. 

67 Niles' Register, LIX, 118-119; Tyler, Tylers, I, 608, 609; cf. Avary, 
Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 16. R. H. Parker wrote to Van Buren, 
April 6, 1840, warning him of the tactics of the Virginia Whigs: "One 
art of deception is to assume the Republican garb and arrogate exclusive 
democracy — They are Republican Democratic Whigs; . . . the advo- 
cates of the poor labourers, and the opposers of executive and legisla- 
tive power, nor will they doff this garment, or defend any of their fav- 
orite measures 4intil the election is over." Van Buren MSS. 

63 Colemanfi Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 125. 



62 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Augean stables of Van Burenism could be cleansed only 
with a Jeffersonian broom and gave his promise to 
prominent southern Whigs to carry out those demo- 
cratic republican principles in which he had from early 
youth been trained. 69 On this basis he was accepted with 
but very little desertion from the party. 70 

The August state elections in Kentucky and North 
Carolina piled up unprecedented Whig majorities which 
indicated the direction of the wind ; in October, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and Georgia reversed their majorities 
and became Whig. When November brought the 
returns from the presidential election, Tennessee, Louis- 
iana, and Mississippi were added to the above list, while 
the Democratic majorities elsewhere were cut down to 
mere trifles. In Virginia, the Shenandoah valley and 
the western part of the state overcame the Whig major- 
ity of the older section by but little over one thousand 
votes. 

The result was hailed as the rebuke of federalism, 
the restoration of democratic republicanism to its legit- 
imate ascendancy. " In truth it cannot be denied ", 
declared the Madisonian, " that general Harrison is one 
of the fairest expressions of American democracy that 
we have ever had." T1 More than that the election did 
not prove ; for the canvass was strangely devoid of dis- 
cussion of concrete issues and of promises for con- 
structive legislation. Now that the enemy had been 
worsted and that immediate danger from that source 
had been removed, differences of opinion among Whigs, 
though overlooked during the presidential contest, 

60 Coleman. Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 114-115. 

70 J. Jackson to Cobb, June 7, 1840, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence. 

71 Niles' Register, LIX, 205. 



RISE OF THE PARTY, 1836-1840 63 

might properly be expected to crop out again. To some 
the victory seemed a guarantee of stability and future 
harmony for the party. 72 In reality, it but imposed upon 
the Whigs the necessity of marshalling and organizing 
their forces for united and harmonious action. This, 
however, was not accomplished without the application 
of considerable energy, patience, and perseverance by 
the leaders who took up this important work. It became 
the task of the years following the election of Harrison 
and Tyler. 

73 Raleigh Register, Nov. 27, 1840. 



CHAPTER III. 
The Growth of Unity, i 841- 1844. 

By laying aside the doubtful issues of bank and tariff 
the Whigs had been able to unite with remarkable 
enthusiasm upon the questions which they considered 
material to the great object of national reform. 1 Hav- 
ing elected their candidate, it soon became their duty to 
redeem the pledges they had made. The important 
question was as to what was to be included in the 
Whig program. Should it stop short with the promises 
of a campaign in which vital issues had been kept in 
the background as much as possible? Clay stepped 
forward to give the answer, determined to take the helm 
and to direct his party in reaping the fruits of a victory 
that might well have been his own. 

According to Wise, Clay, who believed that the con- 
stitutional objection to a national bank was confined to 
the Virginia Whigs, openly rejoiced that, since they had 
failed to return a majority for Harrison, they could 
not embarrass the party with their peculiar doctrines. 2 
It was soon evident that Clay had selected the bank 
question for the first place on his legislative program 
as an issue upon which he might hold the Whigs to 
their party obligations. Clay reminded Congress that 
the people had returned an overwhelming verdict 
against the sub-treasury and that some substitute sys- 
tem had to be provided. He did not, however, announce 

1 Log Cabin, Nov. 9, 1840. 

2 William and Mary Qtly., XVIII, 225; Tyler, Tylers, I, 600; II, 30. 

64 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 65 

a positive program while Van Buren remained in office 
but prepared the way by creating sentiment in favor 
of a special session which he probably induced Har- 
rison to summon. 8 Such a program was, however, tak- 
ing definite shape in his mind and he counted his chances 
of being able to unite his party to carry it out. 

When, as the result of Harrison's unexpected death 
only a month after his inauguration, John Tyler 
stepped up to occupy the presidential chair, Clay and 
many of the Whigs became fearful of the results it 
would have upon party measures. 4 Clay felt, however, 
that even should Tyler, as a state rights man and a 
" Virginia abstractionist ", offer opposition to any of 
them it would be but to detach himself from the great 
body of the Whig party. 5 Strongly convinced of his 
leadership, the Kentucky statesman laid before the 
Senate early in the special session of 1841 a resolution 
announcing the measures that he thought should be 
acted upon. He proposed, of course, to do away with 
the sub-treasury ; it was to be superseded by a national 
bank to be incorporated at once. He also pointed out 
the need for the provision of an adequate revenue, 
which meant a new tariff arrangement. 

Southern Whigs saw Clay announce a settled policy 
upon measures over which they had previously been 
divided among themselves. With the events of the past 
few years prominently in their minds, they were now 
called upon to decide whether or not to follow his lead. 
Circumstances had to a considerable extent operated 

3 Clay to R. P. Letcher, Dec. 13, 1840, Crittenden MSS. 

4 Clay, Private Correspondence, 454; J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, X, 465; 
Tyler, Tylers, II, 30; Wm. A. Graham to -Mangum, June 12, 1841, 
Mangum MSS. 

5 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 156-157. 

6 



66 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

to place them in a receptive mood, willing to listen to 
the voice of their great leader, even though it was at 
once pointed out that his plans declared open war on 
all republican strict construction. 6 

The problems to be dealt with were, after all, prac- 
tical ones, to which political theories have always had 
to make concessions. All Whigs agreed that a successor 
to the sub-treasury system had to be provided for solv- 
ing the currency problem ; most of them admitted that 
past experience pointed to a national bank as productive 
of better results than a pet bank system. It was to be 
hoped that republican Whigs of the strict construction 
brand would listen to the same arguments that had 
induced President Madison to lay aside his scruples and 
sign the second charter. Similarly, the necessity of 
providing a proper revenue for a government with 
empty coffers, with a deficit of several millions, and on 
the verge of bankruptcy made nearly all feel the neces- 
sity of remodeling the system of duties to secure a 
revenue at least adequate to meet the expenses of admin- 
istration. 7 

These proved to be effective arguments when legis- 
lation on these subjects was undertaken in this and the 
succeeding session of Congress. Whig leaders in the 
South soon realized that nearly every interest with 
which they were connected demanded a continuance of 
their existing political alignment. There were many 
reasons why they, even when of state rights antecedents 
and inclinations, should not drop their connection with 
the " federalist " Whigs of the North, which former 
associates like Calhoun had found unendurable. In ana- 



c Tyler, Tylers, II, 38. 

7 Benton, Thirty Years View, II, 413; Mobile Journal, in Niles' 
Register, LX, 183; Savannah Republican, Oct. 13, 1841. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 67 

lyzing the motives which governed their political action, 
it becomes evident that in the determination of national 
party affiliations they were greatly influenced by local 
economic and social as well as political divisions. 

One element in the Whig party in the South, and in 
many states without doubt the most conspicuous and 
important, cannot be accounted for by any natural 
attraction of the latitudinarian ideas of their northern 
fellow-partisans. In the cotton belt of the Gulf states, 
in the districts of extensive plantations and large slave 
holdings, there was always a very considerable Whig 
vote cast. Self interest inclined the slave-holding cotton 
producer toward state rights theories, for he was early 
convinced of the importance of free trade and of the 
necessity for hostility to federal paternalism in general. 
His lot was thrown with the nullification sympathizers 
of the early thirties ; he joined the anti- Jackson alliance 
with added zeal for state rights doctrines when he 
found whatever confidence he had left in the presi- 
dent shattered by the principles avowed in the anti- 
nullification proclamation. The state rights belief of 
the cotton producer led him in an opposite direction 
from his brother of the up-country, whose theories 
grew largely out of the difficulties with the Creek and 
Cherokee Indians, who was satisfied with what Jackson 
had done in that regard, and in consequence readily 
forgave him for the determined views which South 
Carolina nullification had forced upon him. The former 
was driven to complete alienation as he witnessed the 
disastrous effect of the removal of the deposits upon 
the planting and commercial interests of the South. He 
naturally found a prominent place in the great Whig 
coalition. 



68 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

During the early thirties this situation was true of the 
South Atlantic states as well as of those of the lower 
South, but only in Virginia and Georgia did the main 
body of the planting interest continue permanently in 
the Whig party. The vanguard of the South Carolina 
contingent was led away by Calhoun, influenced in 
part, doubtless, by his personal ambitions; Senator 
Preston and Waddy Thompson, however, refused to 
join in committing the planters of .the Palmetto state to 
the administration party. As to North Carolina, many 
of the larger cotton producers there were, in their state 
rights beliefs, the followers of the political teachings 
of the venerable Nathaniel Macon, who used all his 
influence to keep them reconciled to President Jackson 
and to keep down the number of the desertions. Macon 
found it possible, in 1833, to formulate an interpreta- 
tion of federal relations that enabled him to harmonize 
his state rights doctrines with the attitude of Jackson 
in his proclamation ; his influence over the large slave- 
holders brought it general acceptance.* He followed 
Jackson to a complete endorsement of Van Buren for 
whom he secured the electoral vote of the state in 
1836. Moreover, the rise of powerful young Whig 
leaders of nationalistic tendencies in the western part of 
the state served to identify that section with the Whig 
party and to evoke the sectional line which divided the 
state on political matters, only to throw the planting 
interest largely on the opposite side. Yet the tradition 
of plantation aristocracy is often found associated with 
the Whig party of North Carolina, as it is associated 
with the Whigs of Virginia, Georgia, and the Gulf 
states. 

8 Macon to S. P. Carson, Feb. 9, 1833, Niles' Register, XLIV, 418. 
Cf. R. H. Jones to Mangum, Aug. 22, 1834, Mangum MSS. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 69 

The economic and political interests of the southern 
Whigs were the " special interests " of the slavocracy. 
During the early forties the Whig party was frequently 
denounced as the aristocratic party of the slave-holders, 
the democracy of Mississippi designating the local 
organization as " the empire of Mississippi coondom ". 
Later, indeed, when the slavery question became the 
paramount issue in politics, the Whigs had no hesitancy 
in asserting that their party included the largest slave- 
owners and that a large majority of the slaves in the 
South was the property of the Whigs. The Richmond 
Whig, February 4, 1850, insisted that the members of 
its party owned two-thirds of the slaves of Virginia, 
while the Montgomery Alabama Journal of September 
2, 1850, was sure that, of all the slaves in the South, 
between three-fourths and seven-eights were owned by 
Whigs. 

Social distinctions served to confirm the lines which 
economic interests had already drawn. The Whig 
planting aristocracy was a natural and an exclusive 
one. Its members formed a broadcloth and silk stock- 
ing party embracing a large part of the wealth, intelli- 
gence, and blue blood of the South. 9 There was an old 
saw in Virginia that " Whigs know each other by the 
instinct of gentlemen". 10 The line of social cleavage 
that separated the Whig planters from the toiling but 
prosperous hill farmers and from the indolent " poor 

9 Dent. Rev., II, 315; Claiborne, Mississippi, I, 409; Memoir of S. S. 
Prentiss, II, 339; Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 223. 

10 Claiborne, Seventy-five Years in Old Virginia, 131. It is said of 
John Syme, the editor of the Petersburg Intelligencer, that " when asked 
whether or not a Democrat was a gentleman he was wont to tap his snuff 
box significantly, and reply: ' Well, he is apt not to be; but if he is, he 
is in damned bad company ' ". Wise, Life of Wise, 178. So also 
" most of the gentlefolk of Natchez " were Whigs. Mrs. Davis, Jeffer- 
son Davis, I, 189. 



70 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

whites " was a severely distinct one, enough to engender 
political antagonism. In their stately mansions, sur- 
rounded with almost every comfort of the day and with 
many luxuries, and educated in the polished manners of 
their class, the planters regarded as social necessities 
what to the others were symbols of effeminacy and dan- 
dyism, or at least of foolish extravagance. They were 
usually men of culture and of broad interests: often 
they had received a college education in the North; 
they customarily travelled to the northern resorts in 
summer and came in contact with persons of various 
ideas and ideals; with these they were more sociable 
than with the non-slave-holding classes at home. It 
only intensified the aristocratic notion which had devel- 
oped that their less fortunate neighbors were not fit 
to associate with them socially or politically. 11 

The origin of this social line which so nearly coin- 
cided with the party line can be traced, in the southern 
Atlantic states at least, well back into the eighteenth 
century. But it was in connection With the develop- 
ments which culminated in the triumph of Jacksonian 
Democracy that the real tightening of these lines was 
begun. When in the early twenties the up-country 

11 Even in North Carolina the Democrats were aware of this opinion 
" of these sages and sachems of aristocracy ". The editor of the Wil- 
mington Journal, a Democratic paper, complained as late as May i, 1854 
that the Whigs " appear to think this world of ours composed of two very 
different and distinct classes — themselves and their candidates — who, 
dwelling in the odor of ' respectability ', are above and beyond criticism, 
and must be handled with silk gloves properly scented — and the mere 
rabble, the ' Locofocos ', comprising a majority of the voters of North 
Carolina who are totally unworthy of respectable treatment ". 

" The Whig press only speaks the language of cliques and small aristo- 
cratic associations, who indulge the comfortable position that either 
education, wealth, or social position give them a right, booted and 
spurred, to ride over the popular will, or rein it in to suit the purposes 
of ascendancy and power." Natchez Free Trader^ quoted in Tackson 
Southron, Aug. 2, 1850. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 71 

yeomen rallied round the standard of their popular 
hero-leader and demanded Jackson's election to the 
presidency as a proper recognition of their aggressive 
democracy, the southern planters were quick to perceive 
that Jackson and his local supporters would be no 
respecters of conservative tradition. Macon of North 
Carolina was only one of many who for this reason did 
not want to see Jackson placed in the presidential chair." 
They soon found, however, that their efforts to stem the 
surging flood were of no avail; before 1828 many of 
them reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was bet- 
ter to try to control and direct the rushing waters and 
thus mitigate the disaster than to meet them with a defi- 
ance that had already proved futile. Even after they 
had apparently been won over to the Jackson party, 
however, the line of social cleavage continued to exist 
and to be reflected in local political issues. Soon, indeed, 
as a logical outcome of the anomalies under this situa- 
tion in the South, the Jackson party was met by a 
powerful opposition movement in which the southern 
planters played a conspicuous part. Social distinctions 
between the people of the black belt and the people of 
the back country were then able to reassert themselves 
and the social unity of each class had the inevitable 
effect of furthering and cementing their political unity. 
The Whig party in the South, then, contrary to the 
prevailing notion that it drew its chief support from the 
non-slave-holding whites above the " mean white " 
class, was from its origin, and continued to be through- 

12 Wilson, Congressional Career of Nathaniel Macon, 86. 

Benton was in 1824 a Clay man; Macon, Mangum, and other North 
Carolina and Georgia leaders were for Crawford, and Crawford himself 
preferred Adams to Jackson. Clay, Private Correspondence, 192; see 
also Mangum MSS. 



72 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

out its history, the party of the planter and slave-holder 
— the aristocrat of the fertile black belt. The Demo- 
cratic party, on the other hand, drew upon the opposite 
side of the social scale — especially upon the small farmer 
of the back hill-country who could always be reached by 
the party's appeal to the agrarian spirit. Proud of the 
name of conservatives, the Whigs sought to safeguard 
existing rights, privileges, and conditions. They 
dreaded the disorganizing and levelling tendencies 
which they beheld in the creed of their political oppo- 
nents whom they regarded as dangerous and not to 
be trusted in politics. " There can be no reasonable 
doubt ", declared a Whig organ discussing " Agrarian- 
ism ", " that a very large portion of the ' democracy ' of 
our country are bent upon the establishment of a new 
order of things." 13 Their fears seemed about to be 
realized when the Democrats of the Alabama legisla- 
ture, claiming " to represent the great mass of the people 
versus the aristocracy ", 14 substituted the " white " basis 
of apportionment of representation in Congress for the 
" federal " basis which included three-fifths of the 
slaves, in order to cut down the political importance of 
the cotton counties of that state. 15 

13 Columbus Enquirer, June 16, 1842. See also ibid., May 24, 1842; 
Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 235; Niles' Register, LV, 311; LVI, 
250; Dem. Rev., Ill, 106 ff. 

14 DuBose, Life of Yancey, no. 

13 In the Alabama legislature of 1842-1843, the "white" basis was 
adopted on strictly party votes, but one Democrat in both houses voting 
with the united body of the Whigs against it. Garrett, Reminiscences 
of Public Men in Alabama, 246-250. The protest of the Whig minority 
was recorded on the house journal (p. 96). In an attempt somewhat 
later to rescind the " white " basis, the Whigs voted as a unit for the 
mixed basis, ibid., 340-341. In 1850 this party line was just as distinct, 
Mobile Advertiser, Jan. 5, 1850. 

There are certain indications which point to a hostility on the part 
of some of the non-slave-holding Democrats outside, of the black belt 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 73 

Looking upon the Democrats with mingled contempt 
and fear, the Whig planters determined their political 
affiliations in part as the result of this complex situa- 
tion, a situation which proved to be the great friend 
of the national Whig party and the great enemy of 
sectionalism or sectional unity in the ante-bellum South. 
Inclined by nature and training toward active partici- 
pation in politics, the planters could hardly content 
themselves with an isolated and uninfluential position in 
the political arena. They, therefore, continued the alli- 
ance that had been formed in the early thirties with the 
northern conservatives, aristocrats themselves, 16 to break 
the power of Jacksonism. 

Party divisions within the states on local political 
issues often helped to determine the vote of the citizen 
in the presidential election. Of no state was this more 
true than of Mississippi in the matter of her financial 
policy. During the flush times there, as elsewhere, in 
the middle thirties, there was a riot of extravagance 
and land speculation together with a great popularity 
for easily created capital in the form of the numerous 
and loosely managed state banking institutions. 17 When 
the crash came and a severe panic had to be faced, relief 
and remedial measures did not effect the amelioration 



to the institution of slavery itself. The Tuscaloosa Monitor of Sept. 
8, i860, declared that the local Democratic paper, the Flag of the 
Union, had in 1840 announced that the abolition of slavery would be 
the ultimate result of a triumphant democracy. According to the Moni- 
tor, the editor of the Flag of the Union went to no pains to conceal 
his hopes that the slaves would soon be freed. 

16 Even in Illinois the tradition of aristocracy was linked with the 
Whig party. See Lincoln to M. M. Morris, March 26, 1843, Nicolay and 
Hay, Works of Lincoln, I, 262. 

17 Baldwin, Flush Times in Alabama and Mississippi, 81, 84; Nine 
Years of Democratic Rule in Mississippi, 219. 



74 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

intended, and the party in power — the Democratic — 
was held responsible for the situation. 18 While the dis- 
tress was at its height and with no relief in sight, the 
question was raised as to the obligations of the state 
in the case of certain bonds issued to pay for the state's 
stock in the Mississippi Union Bank. The bank hav- 
ing soon come to grief, the Democratic governor in 
his annual message attacked the validity of the sale of 
the bonds and led a popular movement for repudia- 
tion. In 1841 he urged such a step as one which would 
have the warmest approval of four-fifths of the people 
of the state. 19 The Whig legislature, however, passed 
resolutions recognizing the obligation of the state to 
pay both interest and principal and declaring its inten- 
tion to uphold the justice, honor, and dignity of the 
state. 20 

In the elections that followed the question of repudia- 
tion became a party issue. The Whigs declared against 
that course but the Democrats were divided, with the 
bond-payers in a minority. The repudiators were almost 
invariably successful and the matter of repudiation be- 
came the paramount question at issue in Mississippi, 
completely overshadowing national politics. 21 The Dem- 
ocratic party of Mississippi was thus connected with 
a course, persisted in for over a decade, which was gen- 
erally discredited outside of the state * and which was 
bitterly denounced by the growing body of bond-payers 



18 Miss. Hist. Soc, Publications, IX, 185. 
18 Niles' Register, LXI, 228. 

20 Id., LX, 39. 

21 Claiborne, Life and Correspondence of Quitman, I, 193; Memoir of 
S. S. Prentiss, I, passim; Nine Years of Democratic Rule in Mississippi, 
almost entirely given up to this question. 

22 Columbus Whig, July 6, 1843. in Niles' Register, LXIV, 358. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 75 

within it. The result was that many Democrats were 
shaken in their confidence in their party and that the 
Whigs ceased to find in it an object for their respect.* 8 

In Georgia, the Whig legislature of 1840 under the 
leadership of the brilliant young Toombs refused to 
adopt a relief measure recommended by the governor 
in the shape of a proposition which would enable the 
state to loan money to distressed individual citizens. 
Though it became for the time a popular measure and 
carried the Democrats into office in the next election, 
the Georgia Whigs under able leaders stood distinctly 
for honest banking and sound finance ; they consistently 
opposed, in the face of the popular clamor, the flood of 
relief measures that came before the legislature for con- 
sideration. 24 

In the regular Whig states of the South, the position 
of the executives presented a marked contrast with that 
of the governors of Mississippi and Georgia. The gov- 
ernors of Kentucky and Louisiana absolutely refused 
to convene their legislatures in special session; they 
declared that the soundness of the currency and the con- 
fidence of the public in its integrity could not depend 
on local regulation, and that they looked to the general 
government — to Congress — to provide a remedy for 
the deranged condition of the currency. 25 The governor 

33 S. S. Prentiss to Crittenden, Dec, 1844, Crittenden MSS. 

The Democratic press represented the situation as " a contest between 
a privileged aristocracy, moneyed influence, bonds and endless taxation 
and . . . PVeedom, Justice, and Humanity ". Vicksburg Sentinel, Nov. 
7, 1843. Prentiss, an influential Whig, did advise that " the Whigs 
make it a social and business contest as well as a political one ". 
Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, II, 239-240. 

24 Stovall, Life of Toombs, 33-39; Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. 
Stephens, 136; cf. Columbus Enquirer, March 9, 16, 29, 1842. 

25 Niles' Register, LII, 250, 325-326; National Intelligencer, June 
*3, 1837. 



76 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

of Tennessee concurred in these sentiments and based 
his hopes for improvement upon a change of national 
administration. 26 With the Democrats in favor of relief 
legislation and the conservative elements in the southern 
states opposed, the Whigs found in the situation an 
additional reason for keeping party lines, both local 
and national, hard and fast. 

Nor did this reason cease to exist when prosperity 
was finally restored. Experience had given the Dem- 
ocrats a severe shock and a reaction took place. Early 
in the forties Democrats generally began to display a 
marked hostility to all banks, state and national. This 
feeling against banking institutions continued to be 
especially bitter in Mississippi." In Alabama the 
Democrats, consistently advocating a specie basis, also 
opposed even properly regulated banks.' 8 Benton's influ- 
ence made the argument for specie currency perma- 
nently popular among Missouri Democrats. 2 * A Demo- 
cratic organ at St. Louis declared : " When we hear 
of a Democrat in favor of a Bank, it leads us to suspect 
his Democracy. We expect rottenness in his composi- 
tion. He is a false prophet — a wolf in sheep's cloth- 
ing." " In Louisiana, Democratic hostility to banks 
deprived the state of monetary and banking facilities 
commensurate with its real needs. 

The business and planting interests found this situa- 

26 N ties' Register, LVII, 137-138. 

27 L. Sanders to Crittenden, Sept. 20, 1846, Crittenden MSS. 

28 Savannah Republican, July 27, 1841; Raleigh Register, Dec. 31, 1841; 
Mobile Advertiser, July 3, 1849. For Georgia, cf. John H. Lumpkin to 
Cobb, Sept. 12, 1842, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. 

29 American Whig Review, I, 18; St. Louis Missourian, Sept. 11, 1845; 
St. Louis Intelligencer, Dec. 18, 1850, Feb. 13, 1851; Niles' Register, 
LXIII, 259. 

30 St. Louis Union, in St. Louis Intelligencer, Feb. 14, 1851. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 77 

tion far from satisfactory. It hampered them in their 
financial operations, forcing them to pay a higher rate 
of interest for money and often to go outside of their 
own state to secure loans. They looked forward to an 
increase in banking capital, knowing that business facil- 
ities would witness a corresponding increase. While 
the Democrats looked upon banks as a source of almost 
all evils, the Whigs of Missouri and Louisiana came to 
advocate a satisfactory system of free banking. 81 In 
Alabama, the W r higs proposed to secure an increase in 
capital and in circulation by chartering joint stock 
banks within the state. 53 Virginia Whigs came to favor 
an increase in banking capital as an available issue 
which might bring Democratic control of the state to 
an end. 33 

This banking movement was but one phase of a larger 
policy which the Whigs advocated in the southwestern 
states during all the forties and into the fifties. There 
the Democrats had been intrenched by years of control 
and the Whigs found plenty of opportunities for de- 
ploring the stagnancy of Democratic " misrule ". This 
was especially true of the development of the natural 
resources of those states. All of them were recognized 
to be greatly behind their sister states in improvements 
of every kind although their resources gave no evidence 
of such inferiority. 3 * There was a crying need for rail- 
roads, canals, and plankroads and for the improvement 

31 St. Louis Intelligencer, March 25, 1851; New Orleans Bulletin, Sept. 
26, 1849, Jan. 26, 1852; Butler, Life of 7. P. Benjamin, 98, 107. 

32 Mobile Advertiser, March 27, 31, April 12, 18, July 3, Nov. 17, 18, 
20, 22, 24, 25, 26, etc.. 1849. Cf. DuBose, Life of Yancey, 117. 

33 Richmond Whig, March 28, 1851; June 11, 1852. 

34 Mobile Advertiser, June 6, 1849; Jackson Southron, Dec. 28, 1849; 
New Orleans Bulletin, March 1, Sept. 17, 185 1. 



78 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

of the river systems. This was especially noticeable in 
the case of New Orleans, the largest exporting city in 
the country, from which much trade was diverted be- 
cause of lack of transportation facilities. The Demo- 
crats, however, were not favorable to works of internal 
improvement. 35 The Whigs were not long in seeing 
their opportunities as an opposition party. In Louis- 
iana, they demanded the repeal of old impracticable 
laws and the removal of the constitutional restrictions 
upon progressive legislation. 36 In Mississippi, the Whig 
party made a last determined effort to recover itself in 
the days of its decline by taking up the cry of retrench- 
ment and reform and by advocating the development of 
its natural resources especially by works of internal im- 
provement. 37 The Alabama Whigs demanded that 
greater attention be given to state politics. 38 In Mis- 
souri, the Whig program for some years included rail- 
road and other developments in the state. 88 The alert 
Whigs of Georgia, ever ready to see new opportunities, 
favored the policy of granting liberal charters to manu- 
facturing companies for the purpose of encouraging 
local industry. 40 

As the slavery issue came more and more to the 
front in national politics, a conscious effort was made by 

83 See Niles' Register, LXV, 342-343. 

36 New Orleans Bulletin, Feb. 13, March 9, 1850; Aug. 11, Sept. 17, 
25, Oct. 6, Nov. 2, 1851. 

37 Jackson Southron, March 9, 1849; Jackson Flag of the Union, Feb. 
11, March 18, 1853. 

38 Mobile Advertiser, June 6, 1849. 

a9 St. Louis Intelligencer, Dec. 18, 1850, Feb. 13, March 19, 25, May 9, 
185 1. This was in contrast with Democratic " hatred of railroads, canals, 
turnpikes and common schools ". Am. Whig Rev., I, 18. 

40 The Democrats, however, objected to " the Massachusetts policy of 
incorporated wealth ". H. Holsey to Cobb, Dec. 3, 1847, Toombs, 
Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 79 

Whig managers to remove it from the field of local poli- 
tics by directing attention to these state economic prob- 
lems. They were forced into the background at the 
presidential elections and immediately brought forth 
again as soon as the canvass was over. In that way 
much was done toward keeping party spirit alive in the 
South. 

Another factor in determining Whig strength in the 
South was the work of the southern Whig leaders, men 
of ability and of controlling personalities. Some were 
in the closing period of careers of public usefulness, 
wise and sage, ripened by years of experience. Others 
had just stepped upon the stage of national politics, 
young men but born leaders, sometimes rash and impet- 
uous, but surrounded by influences that inclined to mod- 
eration. Able they all were, and in few instances has 
such a large group of able men been brought together 
to work under a single banner. 41 The circumstances 
which gave birth to the party and which added to its 
power were such as to throw all the great leaders 
of the South in opposition to Jackson- Van Burenism 
and to furnish opportunities for new leaders to spring 
into prominence. Clay was, of course, the master mind 
of the party. Coming from a state on the border line 
between the North and the South and avowedly non- 
sectional in his views, he had an advantage which, with 
his personal qualities, peculiarly fitted him for the 
part he was called upon to play. He was regarded as 
the embodiment of Whig principles but was in reality 
the formulator of them. He was above all a leader — 
he knew how to make friends and how to keep them, 

41 Dem. Rev., II, 315. This was especially true before the withdrawal 
of Calhoun. 



80 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

how to win men over to a measure and how to hold 
them to it. He was used to issuing commands and at 
the same time he made, sure that they were carried out 
according to his instructions. According to Benton, he 
wielded his power in Congress especially through the 
party caucus, 42 and his dictatorship cut down the number 
of independents to very few. His crowning victory 
came in Tyler's administration when he proved himself 
able to keep the great body of the Whig party together 
with the official influence of the government pulling 
in the opposite direction. 

In Virginia the number of leaders was cut down to 
less than normal by the split with Tyler ; Archer, Botts, 
Taliaferro, William B. Preston, and A. H. H. Stuart 
chose, however, to follow Clay rather than the president 
from their own state and were always able to give con- 
vincing proof of their orthodoxy. Summers of the 
Kanawha Valley district was an able advocate of Whig 
doctrines as well as of the interests of his own part 
of the state. Rives again returned to the Whig ranks 
before the election of 1844. North Carolina Whigs fol- 
lowed the guidance of a prominent set of leaders. 
Badger and Graham, original followers of Clay in the 
time of Adams's administration, constituted a connect- 
ing link between the Whig party there and the National 
Republicans. Mangum, who for the succeeding fifteen 
years occupied a leading place in North Carolina and 
national politics, was one of the leaders of the " State 
Rights Whig party " which was formed in the middle 
thirties, and became an ardent admirer of Henry Clay. 
Clingman, like Mangum and Graham, came from the 
western part of the state and later distinguished himself 

42 Benton, Thirty Years View, II, 361. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 81 

for his defense of slavery and southern rights. 43 Only 
less prominent were Edward Stanly and Kenneth Ray- 
ner, the former one of the ablest champions of whig- 
gery in Congress/ 4 

The state rights wing of the Whig minority in South 
Carolina was led by Preston 45 and Waddy Thompson, 
both of whom became close friends of Clay. James 
L. Petigru represented the broad construction element, 
bridging the gap which separated the Whig from the 
old Federalist party. This trio was shortly joined 
by Legare and Yeadon from the Democratic ranks. 
Of the powerful group of Whig statesmen in Georgia, 
nearly all claimed to be followers of the precepts of Jef- 
fersonian Democracy. 46 The sage of the party there 
was John M. Berrien, a thorough aristocrat whose hold 
upon his party continued up to his death. With him 
worked William C. Dawson and the inseparables, 
Toombs and Stephens, the Orestes and Pylades of pol- 
iticians, aided within the state by Jenkins and Wilde. 
The ablest Whig in Alabama was probably Judge A. F. 
Hopkins, originally an Alexander Hamilton Federalist 
and always of latitudinarian inclinations. 47 More con- 
spicuous, however, was the eloquent Hilliard of whom 
it was said that it was worth going the full length of 
the state to hear him pronounce the word " Alabama ". 
He, Brodnax, and Judge B. F. Porter represented the 

43 In the fifties, when he turned Democrat, he carried his district for 
Congress as easily as formerly, though it afterward became Whig again. 
Dowd, Prominent Living North Carolinians, 16. 

44 J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, 19. 

43 In Adams's mind one of the ablest men in Congress, ibid., 249. 

46 Cf. Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 15; Miller, Bench and 
3ar of Georgia, I, 263; Wheeler, History of Congress, II, 62. 

47 Hilliard, Politics and Pen Pictures, 119; Garrett, Reminiscences of 
Public Men in Alabama, 377-379- 



82 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

state rights brand of whiggery there. 43 Another gifted 
Whig orator from Alabama was James Dellet who for 
some time represented the Mobile district in Congress. 
He had supported Adams for president in 1828 and 
always subscribed fully to the party program. 49 Other 
Alabama leaders deserving of mention were Gayle, 
Alston, and Dent. The rank and file of the party in 
Mississippi received orders from an able corps of lead- 
ers, representing both wings. A list of these would be a 
long one, including Poindexter, Prentiss, Sharkey, Yer- 
ger, McClung, Guion, Alcorn, and Brooke. 50 In connec- 
tion with Louisiana it is necessary but to mention the 
names of her Whig senators — Porter, Barrow, Johnson, 
Conrad, and later Benjamin. 

In the Whig states of Kentucky and Tennessee where 
the problem was to conserve the strength of the party 
rather than to create a majority, the party workers were 
especially numerous, but in Kentucky they operated 
under chiefs who planned the various moves. There 
Clay shared the direction of affairs with such men as 
Crittenden, Letcher, Morehead, and Underwood, and 
matters usually went along smoothly. In the neighbor- 
ing state of Tennessee the lack of proper controlling 
influences cut down the efficiency of the Whig machin- 
ery. Ambitious local leaders were too numerous for 
party harmony, 61 and the more able ones like Williams, 

48 Garrett, 96, 317. "I confidently state that my influence over the press 
of the State, is greater than that of any other public man." H. W. 
Hilliard to Fillmore, April 22, 1851, Fillmore MSS. 

49 J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, X, 277. 

50 See Foote, Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest, and Lynch, 
Bench and Bar of Mississippi. 

61 Conflicting sectional interests within the state added to the compli- 
cation. Niles' Register, LXXIII, 209. In 1851, there were six Whig 
candidates for United States Senator representing the various sections. 
Nashville Republican Banner, Nov. 4, 6, 1851. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 S3 

Bell, Jones, Gentry, and Brown seemed to lack the alert- 
ness and aggressiveness necessary to cope with the sit- 
uation. 62 

The task of this formidable array of talent was to 
further the interests of the party in so far as was con- 
sistent with sectional and local interests and personal 
ambitions. In some cases this did not mean a break with 
former principles but it did with several state rights 
Whigs when they yielded to the party's espousal of an 
increased, if not protective, tariff and a national bank. 
But rarely did this apparent inconsistency force them 
from the party. Had not strong reasons existed for 
their presence in it, they would probably have joined the 
exodus of the late thirties. 53 They saw the advantages 
of a national party to act as a check upon the Democrats. 
As sectionalism became more and more pronounced, 
they realized the necessity of making concessions to 
the northern wing of the party, as on matters of tariff 
policy, expecting that they would be met by concessions 
equally vital to the South. As members of Congress, 
therefore, they in general, aside from any particular 
personal attachments, cultivated cordial social relations 
with the northern Whig representatives and leaders at 
Washington, which always proved an invaluable foun- 
dation for acting in harmony with them in the formula- 
tion of the Whig program and in putting through Whig 
measures. 54 

52 A list even so incomplete as this should not omit the names of 
Henry S. Geyer and Edward Bates of Missouri, of John M. Clayton of 
Delaware, and of Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, all of whom, besides 
their local leadership, had a powerful influence on Whigs of both sec- 
tions on account of their advantage in hailing from border states. 

53 See Tyler, Tylers, II, 707. 

64 In recognition of the importance of this fact, we find Sargent, at 
the opening of the special session of 1841, suggesting the value of regular 



84 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Having thus convinced themselves and each other, 
the next step was but to define the obligations of party 
and to bring their constituencies in line. In this 
they were aided by the presence of definite northern 
influences in the South. The census returns of 1850 
furnish the basis for a rough estimate of the propor- 
tion of persons of northern nativity to the total popula- 
tion of the southern states — it was by no means 
inconsiderable. In the settlement of Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, and the Southwest, the northern states contributed 
a larger share of emigrants than might have been ex- 
pected in view of the distance to be traversed. 55 Rep- 
resentatives of the farming population of Ohio and 
western Pennsylvania were very frequently attracted 
by the agricultural resources of the South as revealed 
to their alert eyes while on their boating expeditions 
down the Mississippi. They often returned to take up 
land, became prosperous, and developed into slave-hol- 
ders and large planters. From the commercial section 
of the North came young men who saw business oppor- 
tunities in the new and growing cities of the South — 
opportunities to which southerners did not seem to be 
alive or which they did not appear to be capable of 
utilizing. They set up banks, mercantile houses, insur- 
ance offices, and newspaper presses, and bought up 
valuable pieces of real estate. New Orleans, Savannah, 
Augusta, Mobile, Vicksburg, Natchez, and even smaller 

social as well as political intercourse between the Whigs of the various 
sections and proposing a plan which would " bring the Whigs of Con- 
gress together . . . socially once a week ". N. Sargent to Mangura, 
June, i84[i], Mangum MSS. Weed later stated that his associations 
were stronger with the southern than with the northern Whig states- 
men. Hudson, History of Journalism, 400. 

55 Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 232-233; Garrett, Reminiscences of 
Public Men in Alabama, 35-36. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 85 

places experienced the benefits of the work done by 
these " Yankees ".° 6 

Of this northern-born element a large number were 
advocates of federal paternalism — followers of Clay 
or of Webster. Many were skillful politicians endowed 
with ability to lead and to control political sentiment. 
They had first to overcome the prejudice against " Yan- 
kees " ; but having done this, they had a profitable field 
for work in the new states where the population was 
young and especially susceptible to change of opinion. 

What could be done in such conditions is best shown 
by the career of Sargent S. Prentiss in Mississippi. Ar- 
riving from Maine a lame, lisping boy, within a dozen 
years he became the idol of the state and henceforth 
there was never a time when, in the estimation of his 
friends, he could not have carried the popular vote of the 
state. 57 An avowed opponent of Jeffersonian strict con- 
struction and a strong admirer of Clay and more espe- 
cially of Webster, 58 he was always a devoted Whig and 
for a long time the standard-bearer of the Whigs of 
Mississippi. 59 Many followed almost blindly the course 
which he advocated and the orthodoxy of the members 
of the party there was measured by the standards which 
he set up. In 1837, in his canvass for reelection to 
Congress he made the national bank the issue as the 
leading item on the Whig program there. In that cam- 
paign he visited forty-five counties in the state on an 
election tour of ten weeks, averaged thirty miles a day 

56 Calhoun Correspondence, 1134-1135, 1189, 1193; Claiborne, Miss- 
issippi, I, 409; Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 184. 

57 Baldwin, Flush Times in Alabama and Mississippi, 197, 212; Memoir 
of S. S. Prentiss, II, 141. 

58 Ibid., 240; Claiborne, Life and Times of General Dale, 220-221. 
69 Niles' Register, LXVI, 403; Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 238. 



86 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

on horseback, spoke two hours on each week day, and 
did not miss a single appointment. 60 It was his practice 
before addressing a public meeting to present resolu- 
tions and then to speak on them. 61 As an advocate of a 
national bank and of a protective tariff and as an 
opponent of repudiation, this was a skillful way of 
setting his position before the people. His leadership 
in the state only ended after his departure to a new 
sphere of influence. 

To the state of Mississippi, there came also a New 
England peddler, D. O. Shattuck. He became in suc- 
cession a Methodist minister, an able judge, and finally 
in 1841, the candidate of the Whig party for governor 
on an anti-repudiation platform. 62 In Alabama, Charles 
C. Langdon, another New Englander, as editor of the 
Mobile Advertiser, mayor of Mobile, member of the 
state legislature, and through all an active Whig leader, 
had a strong influence over the working of his own 
party and that of his opponents, having been regarded 
even by the latter as sound on questions of state policy 
and those concerning the general welfare. 63 

The southern Whig press, too, had definite connec- 
tions with the northern wing of the party. Many of 
its editors were northerners or under northern influence. 
There were the editor and poet, George D. Prentice of 
the Louisville Journal; George W. Kendall of the New 
Orleans Picayune; John C. Bates, of the Montgomery 
Alabama Journal, and his colleague Langdon, already 
mentioned, of the Mobile Advertiser ; J. L. Locke of 

60 Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 217, 228, 242-243. Cf. F. Huston to Crit- 
tenden, Dec. 1, 1837, Crittenden MSS. 

61 Shields, Life of Prentiss, 312. 

62 Niles' Register, LX, 90. 

63 Garrett, Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama, 119, 184. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 87 

the Savannah Republican; and others of scarcely less 
prominence. 04 All of northern birth and education, they 
became good southerners and sound on the problems 
that were peculiar to their adopted section. But they 
remained loyal national Whigs and moulded and shaped 
party feeling in the wide area of their influence as 
editors of metropolitan dailies. It would be proper to 
add to this group such men as General Duffield of the 
Natchez Courier, who, as the warm personal and polit- 
ical friend of S. S. Prentiss, often followed the course 
which the latter suggested to him. 65 Another important 
influence was that of " parson " Brownlow and his 
Whig which he claimed had a larger circulation than 
any other paper in Tennessee. 66 He regarded himself 
as a federal Whig of the Washington and Alexander 
Hamilton school and advocated a "concentrated Federal 
Government " ; 67 on the other hand, he was a bold defen- 
der of the institution of slavery and hence able to rep- 
resent the interests of the South. 

A complete survey of the Whig press of the South 
would require more than a mere mention of the Rich- 
mond Whig and the Charleston Courier.™ The former, 
long edited by James H. Pleasants, displayed strong 
state rights sentiments in the days of South Carolina 

64 Every leading Whig journal of North Carolina, except the Raleigh 
Register, was edited by a northerner, and Joseph Gales of the Register 
was a native Englishman and had previously published a newspaper in 
Philadelphia. Cf. Wheeler, History of North Carolina, 114. 

63 Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, II, 225. 

66 Brownlow, Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession, 18. 

67 Ibid., 20. He and Colonel Alexander McClung, editor of the Jackson 
True Issue, one of the most influential papers of the Southwest, were 
among the native southerners who contended for nationalist principles 
in that quarter. Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, 439. 

68 Also of the Nashville Republican Banner, the New Orleans Bulletin, 
and the Whig press at Memphis. 



88 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

nullification, but developed with the party, and soon 
led Whig sentiment in Virginia, laboring unceasingly 
for harmony within the party and, according to Upshur, 
flogging " everything like spirit out of the State-rights 
men ". 69 The Charleston Courier was for some time 
edited and managed by Richard Yeadon, a strong 
Union man and a supporter of Jackson, who, however, 
declared for the Whig party after the campaign of 1840 
and subscribed to the full program of his new associates 
including the tariff, which he was soon defending as 
both constitutional and expedient. 70 

The Whig press of the South as a whole looked 
toward the National Intelligencer, the central organ of 
whiggery, as a model in which they had unlimited con- 
fidence. They relied upon it not only for reports of 
speeches but for the views expressed in its editorial 
columns as well. There was, moreover, that close con- 
nection with the Raleigh Register, a leading southern 
Whig journal, which was insured by the relationship 
between the editors. 71 Webster said of Gales and 
Seaton : " Those, sir, are two of the wisest and best 
heads in this country ; as to Mr. Gales, he knows more 
about the history of this government than all the polit- 
ical writers of the day put together." ' The National 
Intelligencer was of course the representative of Whig 
orthodoxy as defined at the nation's capital and the sen- 
timents expressed were always of high-toned nation- 
alism. On the other hand, it recognized the responsi- 



69 Tyler, Tylers, II, 702. 

70 Am. Whig Rev., XI, 481-482. 

71 Joseph Gales of the Register was the father of Gales and father- 
in-law of Seaton of the National Intelligencer. Niles' Register, LXI, 
16. 

73 Hudson, History of Journalism, 234. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 89 

bility of its position as " occupying the isthmus between 
the geographical divisions of the country both as to 
locality and as to feeling ".' 3 It was strong, too, in its 
direct influence on the individual Whig voter in the 
South where it enjoyed a circulation of remarkable 
extent, 74 

Perhaps the closest contact between the Whig presses 
of the two sections came on the occasion of the festival 
of Whig editors at Washington on the day following 
Harrison's inauguration. Gathering from all parts of 
the Union but laying aside state feeling and sectional 
prejudices, they made common pledges and drank the 
toasts proposed by the southern representatives to the 
unity of feeling and interest between the North and the 
South. Carrying this spirit of harmony home with them, 
they prepared for the administration of the first Whig 
president. 75 

The southern Whigs acted under a combination of 
motives produced by the conditions that have been de- 
scribed when they were brought face to face with Clay's 
legislative program in the extra session of 1841. To 
many of its opponents even, this program did not come 
unexpectedly. Indeed, expressions of Whig sentiment 
in various parts of the South seemed to indicate a de- 
mand even there for the measures proposed. The situa- 
tion would seem to have vindicated Clay's policy of the 
later thirties regarding the bank. He had given his 
pledge to wait for a popular demand for such an insti- 

73 National Intelligencer, March 6, 1837. 

74 " Everybody took the National Intelligencer, then edited by Messrs. 
Gales and Seaton, who were men of sterling honesty, with strong Federal 
views. . . . They believed all they published, and, as a consequence, 
the Whigs believed them." Mrs. Davis, Jefferson Davis, I, 189. 

73 National Intelligencer, March 8, 1837. 



90 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tution. Until recently political considerations had pre- 
vented anything like a sincere expression of opinion on 
the subject. Democrats who at heart favored a national 
bank took part in the party outcry against all proposals 
for the establishment of one. 78 It was only after other 
remedies were tried and found wanting or objectionable 
in character — after the supporters of those remedies 
were driven into a minority, that it was possible to 
realize to what extent popular opinion in the South was 
favorable to a remedy along the lines of the old United 
States Bank. 

Great changes of opinion on the subject of a national 
bank were reported as having taken place in all parts of 
the South, even in Virginia. 77 Southerners claimed to 
have learned their lessons in the school of adversity. 
The financial stringency and the disordered and uncer- 
tain condition of the currency that began in 1837 was 
attributed to Jackson's destruction of the bank. 78 It was 
natural for a strict state rights man in 1832 to entertain 
doubts as to the constitutionality of the bank; it was 
almost equally reasonable for him, " with the lights now 
before him and after the experience of the last seven 
years ", to favor a national bank. 79 Governor Dudley of 

76 A. Porter to Crittenden, July 2, 1837, Crittenden MSS. 

77 National Intelligencer, May 3, 11, 18-20, 22, etc., 1841; Columbus 
Enquirer, May 5, 12, July 28, Aug. 11, 1841. 

" We have been surprised at the extent of change in favor of a restora- 
tion of a bank of the United States. Nor is the change by any means 
confined to the Whig party. It pervades all parties. It reaches all 
classes." Richmond Whig, May 5, 1841. 

78 Raleigh Register, April 13, 1841; Louisville Journal, May 14 1841. 

79 Raleigh Register, July 2, 1841 ; cf. J. H. Lumpkin to Cobb, Sept. 12, 
1842. Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. An Alabama 
Democrat wrote in 1842: "If a majority of the people desire a U. S. 
Bank they ought to have one under the plea of necessity. This plea I 
verily believe can be sustained." John Mushat to Mangum, Feb. 7, 
1842, Mangum MSS. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 91 

North Carolina undertook to define in his annual mes- 
sage of November, 1840 the desire of the Whigs of that 
state for a national bank. When the special session 
of Congress opened, both Senators Mangum and Gra- 
ham stated that the Whigs of North Carolina were 
almost universally in favor of such an institution, and 
that many of the other party participated in this feel- 
ing. 80 The upper house of the Georgia legislature 
passed resolutions denying the constitutional right of 
Congress to charter a bank or to impose a protective 
tariff, but the great body of the Whigs voted against 
them. 81 A large majority of the newly elected Whig 
delegation to Congress from Virginia was counted 
upon as favorable to a national bank/ 2 and a meeting 
of the Charleston Whigs shortly before the opening of 
the session expressed its approval of an increased 
revenue tariff and defended the constitutionality of a 
United States bank as " settled by reason, by authority 
and by experience of its indispensable utility ". 83 In- 
deed, Colonel Preston had declined to consider the posi- 
tion of secretary of the navy in Harrison's cabinet 
through fear that by his resigning from the Senate the 
bank might be defeated in that body by the casting vote 
of the new vice-president. 84 Maryland Whigs were 
amazed that Merrick, one of their senators, could think 
of voting against a national bank measure on the 
ground that Tyler intended to veto it. 85 

80 Cong. Globe, 27 Cong., 1 sess., 116; Raleigh Register, June 29; 
Louisville Journal, July 2, 1841. 

81 Niles' Register, LIX, 275. 
**Id., LX, 172, 196. 

83 Ibid., 308-309; Savannah Republican, May 28, 1841. 

84 Tyler, Tylers, II, 16-17; cf. letter of Senator Preston, in Columbus 
Enquirer, May 12, 1841. 

85 Reverdy Johnson to Mangum, July 13, 1841, Mangum MSS. 



92 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

As chief executive, Tyler found the number of south- 
erners who inclined to support him in his opposition to 
the bank measures proposed by Congress gradually 
reduced to the faithful little following from Virginia.* 3 
With that exception the southern members of the party 
rallied to the support of both bank bills and severely 
condemned the president for his vetoes. 87 When the 
breach came, the southerners in the cabinet were easily 
induced to resign and the Whig caucus which drew up 
the manifesto reading Tyler out of the party was di- 
rected by Senator Mangum of North Carolina, who 
offered the resolution for the preparation of the ad- 
dress. The necessity of defining orthodox whiggery in 
that document served to strengthen the results of the 
bank vetoes in rallying the Whigs of all sections around 
definite principles. 

These events at the capital required a readjustment 
of party lines within the states, which could only mean 
losses for the Whigs. The great majority, however, of 
the party in the South held firm and decided to throw 
Tyler overboard. Active Tyler Whigs were not nu- 
merous, but many earnest Whig voters dissented from 
the course which the majority had taken and had to 
determine their own status. 88 The results were felt in 
the state elections when nearly every southern state wit- 
nessed a perceptible falling of its Whig vote, regularly 

, 86 Tyler, Tylers, II, 47, 57; Wise, Seven Decades, 206; Coleman, Life 
of J. /. Crittenden, I, 161, 164. 

87 See Savannah Republican, Sept. 16, 18; Columbus Enquirer, Sept. 
8, 22, etc., 1841. 

Leslie Combs wrote to Crittenden, Aug. 27, 1841, denouncing the 
president and declaring that Tyler lived and breathed " in the char- 
coal Atmosphere of old William and Mary abstractions ". Critten- 
den MSS. 

88 Calhoun Correspondence, 495, 496, 832; Louisville Journal, Sept. 15, 
1841; to Mangum, May 23, 1842, Mangum MSS. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 93 

accompanied by Democratic gains. In Georgia, Missis- 
sippi, and Louisiana, the shift was important enough 
to substitute Democratic majorities for the decided 
Whig ones of 1840. 

The general condemnation of Tyler by the Whigs 
led to an active movement in favor of Clay as the leader 
of orthodox whiggery. When the former first showed 
signs of wavering, Whig sentiment prepared itself for 
a rally around the Clay standard. 89 State rights Whigs 
who had been won over to the party measures were 
no less active than the Whigs of nationalistic training. 
Organs of both groups promptly posted Clay's name for 
the presidency. "With a unanimity seldom if ever be- 
fore manifested by the Whig party ", it was declared, 
" he has been taken up and recommended for the next 
Presidency by the Whig press in every portion of the 
Union." s Within ten months apparently every Whig 
paper in Georgia was out for Clay. 91 The North Caro- 
lina Whigs made early preparations for a state con- 
vention in which to promulgate a formal nomination. 92 
This whole movement would seem to show, if we had no 
other evidence, that the southern Whigs had come to 
accept Clay's policy not only as to the bank but also as 
to the other leading question — the tariff. The direct 
evidence, however, on this point requires some further 
attention. 

In facing the problem of meeting the existing revenue 
deficiency, the Whigs had in the next session to aban- 

£9 Reverdy Johnson to Mangum, Aug. 27, 1841, Mangvim MSS. 

90 Tuscumbia North Alabamian, Oct. 30, 184.1; cf. Savannah Republi- 
can, Sept. 13; Columbus Enquirer, Sept. 14, 1841. 

91 Wm. Graham to P. H. Mangum, June 4, 1842, Mangum MSS. 

92 C. P. Green to Mangum, Nov. 17, Dec. 10, 1841, Mangum MSS.; 
Raleigh Register, Dec. 3, 1841. 



94 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

don the compromise tariff arrangement, and the south- 
ern members were compelled to share in the transaction. 
The situation, however, was different from what it 
had been in 1832. Then Toombs and Berrien were little 
short of fiery milliners, though they afterward denied 
the correctness of the nullification theory; then Man- 
gum and Rayner were vigorous opponents of the pro- 
tective doctrine ; and few southerners were to be found, 
except in Kentucky and Louisiana, who did not voice 
more or less indignation at the high tariff system. 

Within a decade, however, the South had seen cotton 
factories set up by enterprising citizens in all of its 
Atlantic seaboard states amid the forecasts of the 
protectionists that it, too, would soon realize the merits 
of their arguments. 93 Many were awakened to the 
possibility that at some time the manufacturing interests 
might not be in so great a minority there and that the 
development of the natural resources of the South might 
remove the sectional line which defined the southern 
limits of the protectionist zone. North Carolina came 
to have several manufacturing centres, the most im- 
portant of all at Fayetteville ; 94 Virginia, Georgia, and 
to a less extent South Carolina and the Gulf states 
were beginning to make the break with the past. 95 

" The views of southern people have been much 
changed of late years ", declared the Savannah Repub- 
lican, " and they do not view protective duties with quite 
so distempered an eye, for their own factories are al- 
ready growing up ". 96 The Richmond Whig frankly 

^Niles' Register, XLV, 4, 242, XLIV, 266. 

94 Id., L, 378; LV, 360; LVI, 64; LVIII, 136, 230; LX, 131-132; 
LXIV, 272; Raleigh Register, Sept. 7, 21, Dec. 14, 1841. 
93 Savannah Republican, Aug. 12, 19, 28, Sept. 6, 9, 1841. 
98 Savannah Republican, July 17, 1841. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 95 

confessed its error : " Though long and deeply steeped 
ourselves in the popular prejudice against the tariff, our 
minds have not been entirely sealed to the revelations 
of experience. . . . We would not now, as we have 
done before, assert without qualification, that under 
the existing commercial regulations of the world, a 
high tariff would not be beneficial to the country." 9T 
The editor of the Columbus Enquirer was not ashamed 
to admit that he had gone over to Clay's doctrines: 
" We used to be a tolerably hotheaded nullifier in our 
boyish days, when our heads were turned inside out by 
the glittering bauble of an impracticable free trade 
system, which we were fool enough to think within 
the range of possibilities — and so far as the principles 
involved in the nullification doctrine are concerned, we 
hope never to abandon them. But we may as well 
confess that our free trade notions are looked upon at 
this time as the vagaries of an unduly excited imagina- 
tion." ! Another southern journal, reflecting on the 
depressed state of the cotton market, cotton having 
fallen to the extremely low price of five cents and less 
a pound, saw that self interest was leading the South 
away from the doctrine of free trade : " Free trade 
with all its beauties has brought with it few or no 
benefits but rather a train of calamities, and we find the 
whole South laboring under a complete prostration of 
prosperity." " 

Soon the arguments for protection were placed before 
the people of the South. It was pointed out that the 



97 Richmond Whig, in Louisville Journal, July 12, 1841. 

98 Columbus Enquirer, May 26, 1842; cf. id., June 16. 

99 Savannah Georgian, in Niles' Register, LXII, 18; cf. Columbus 
Enquirer, Aug. 10, 1841: "Free Trade and Low Prices for Cotton." 



96 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

great staples of cotton and rice enjoyed and needed such 
protection — that they would probably be ruinously 
affected by even the final reduction under the com- 
promise tariff, that the condition of a surplus of raw- 
products could only be removed by encouraging do- 
mestic industry and, if necessary, by taking labor and 
capital from the field of production and applying it to 
that of manufacturing. It was argued that the prosper- 
ity of the South .depended upon that of the North, 
that their interests, instead of conflicting, were similar 
and mutually dependent, and that the interests of both 
would be fostered by a tariff which would act as a 
barrier to keep foreign competition from ruining Amer- 
ican industry. 100 The Jackson Southron announced the 
results of such reasoning: "The people of the south 
and west, who until recently, were opposed to protec- 
tion, are retracing their steps almost unanimously. In 
two years time, there will hardly be a single southern 
man of intelligence opposed to the tariff principles." 101 
The cotton-growers were frightened by another de- 
velopment. They had early been warned that the future 
would bring competition in the English market from 
cotton grown in India and the East Indies ; 102 they had 
been told that perhaps at some time they would them- 
selves desire an increase over the existing duty on im- 
ported raw cotton to prevent disastrous competition 
from Brazil and Texas for the local market. 103 In the 

100 Raleigh Register, Sept. 7; Savannah Republican, Oct. 5, 1841. The 
Columbus Enquirer, June 30, 1842, pointed out that it was merely a 
matter of equity: " We drove New England from the ocean to the 
spindle." 

101 Miles' Register, LXII, 336; cf. T. Ritchie to C. Campbell, April 6, 
1842, John P. Branch Papers, III, 248. 

™Niles' Register, XLIV, 97- 
™Ibid., 13. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 97 

early forties the danger seemed to become a real one 
when the press of the country gave great currency to the 
rumor that cotton was being successfully grown in India 
and in sufficient quantities to indicate that it would soon 
be able to supply the market in England. 104 The devel- 
opment of a home market for southern cotton seemed at 
once essential and the method decided upon to secure it 
was naturally the advocacy of a protective tariff to 
make home manufactures profitable. 105 A convention 
of cotton planters at Mobile, taking cognizance of the 
situation, agreed to recommend a protective duty upon 
all imported manufactured articles as a means of secur- 
ing themselves and their interests. 108 The free trade 
journals found it impossible to check the spread of 
this sentiment, and the tendency grew for planters to 
look to a moderate protective tariff as the remedy 
against the permanence of the existing low value of 
their crops and other disastrous results of the continued 
financial distress. 107 

As the reductions under the compromise tariff were 
made and as the time approached for the minimum 
scale to be applied, the tariff sections of the South added 
their complaints and protests to those of the northern 
manufacturers, and began to urge the adoption of a 
higher tariff. The sugar growers of Louisiana, the 
hemp manufacturers of Kentucky and Missouri, and 
the wool, salt, iron, and other manufacturing interests 
of Virginia described the situation as critical and 

104 Savannah Republican, July 27, Sept. 4, 6, 23, 1841; Raleigh Register, 
Dec. 10, 184-1; Columbus Enquirer, Jan. 26, 1842. 

105 Ibid.; Charleston Courier, in Niles' Register, LXII, 18. 

1{i0 Ibid., 71, 80; Raleigh Star, in Washington (N. C.) Whig, April 13, 
1842. 
107 Niles' Register, LXII, 309-310, 336. 
8 



98 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

petitioned for an increase of duties to avert impending 

108 

rum. 

To i*.iese conditions the southern Whig members of 
Congress tried to respond while laboring on the problem 
of tariff revision. The very fact that the change was 
primarily to satisfy the needs of an empty treasury 
enabled them to preserve an apparent consistency in 
their views on the tariff, for none were willing to sub- 
stitute any scheme of internal taxation for the tariff as 
a means of supplying the government with revenue. 
While disavowing any intention of having a purely 
protective tariff fastened upon the country as a result 
of the Whig victory, 109 they were able to make conces- 
sions to the protectionists by advocating discriminating 
duties so laid as incidentally to protect and foster home 
industry. In this they went no further than many 
southern Democrats, who regarded incidental protec- 
tion as the only reasonable ana! just arrangement and 
entirely in harmony with the traditions of the past. 110 
Where they did differ from their opponents was in 
deciding what constituted a revenue duty as against a 
protective duty on the various articles. In this regard, 
too, they were not always willing to concede the justness 
of the schedules desired by the northern Whigs. Differ- 
ences of opinion within the party on the tariff as well as 
differences with regard to the scheme for the distribu- 
tion of the proceeds of the public land sales were taken 
up with a view to harmonious action in the party meet- 
ings which were held regularly during the critical 

ws Niles' Register, LXII, 96, 112, 211; LXI, 384; Goleman, Life of J. J. 
Crittenden, I, 180; J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, 138, 198. 

109 See speeches of Gamble of Georgia, June 15, July 7, Cong. Globe, 
27 Cong., 2 sess., 636, 731. 

110 See Crittenden's speech of July 29, 1842, ibid., 808. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 99 

period. 111 The votes on the various bills — the two 
measures which Tyler vetoed as well as the one which 
finally received his signature — showed that the majority 
of the southern members of the party had been brought 
into line. 112 Likewise, in 1844, the Democratic measure 
which proposed to repeal the existing tariff met abso- 
lutely no support from southern Whigs. 113 

Before the work of tariff revision had been accom- 
plished the supporters of Clay in North Carolina, find- 
ing it difficult to repress the desire to honor their leader, 
launched through their state convention a movement in 
favor of his election to succeed Tyler. 114 This step was 
followed promptly by similar action on the part of 
the state rights Whigs of Georgia and later repeated 
by Whig conventions in most of the southern states. 
Clay's popularity in the South was now at a greater 
height than ever and his chances of getting the vote 
of that section were conceded to be better than those of 
any of the probable candidates of the Democratic 
party. 

Taking advantage of this situation, Clay accepted 
the much extended invitation of the Whigs of North 
Carolina and promised to visit their state in the spring 

111 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 188, 193-194; cf. J.Q.Adams, 
Memoirs, XI, 228. Clay aided the Whigs in overcoming the obstacles 
in their path by advice and direction from his retirement at Ashland, ibid. 

112 The southern Whig votes against the measure as finally passed 
came partly from those opposed to the surrender of the land distribution 
feature to the president's mandate. Some of them, as Mangum, Graham, 
and Berrien, would have voted in the affirmative had their votes been 
needed. Sargent, Public Men and Events, II, 187. Cf. J. S. Kerr to 
Wm. D. Merrick, Sept. 24, 1842, Kerr MSS. 

113 Chappell of Georgia alone voted with the Democrats which forced 
him to throw in his lot with that party, and he was defeated for reelec- 
tion by a Whig opponent. Niles' Register, LXVI, 323. 

114 See Wm. A. Graham to Mangum, March 9; H. W. Miller to Man- 
gum, April 3; C. L. Hinton to Mangum, April 5, 1842, Mangum MSS. 



ioo WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

of 1844. This was soon expanded into a tour of the 
Gulf and seaboard states of the South which began 
at the close of his winter sojourn in New Orleans. 
Whigs along the line of his route were aroused to 
great enthusiasm at the possibility of seeing the great 
statesman and party leader in their midst. His recep- 
tion was everywhere elaborately prepared for 115 and 
he passed on from one demonstration of his popularity 
to another. As important as the public receptions, cere- 
monies, and ovations, were the personal meetings and 
close associations with the party leaders who enter- 
tained him and who listened willingly to his suggestions. 
In his public speeches Clay avoided any semblance of 
electioneering but reviewed the history of the Whig 
cause, the principles for which the party struggled, and 
the measures it had passed in the opportunity which 
had recently been given to it. He saw no reason for 
avoiding an expression of his views upon the tariff. 
He had, indeed, displayed a wise moderation in laying 
down the rules by which the party had been guided in 
making the readjustment of 1842. 116 Now he repeated 
in his speeches at Milledgeville, Savannah, Charleston, 
and Raleigh, the views which he had been giving out 
in his Tennessee and Georgia letters 1U against the oppo- 
site extremes of free trade and prohibitive duties and 
in favor of moderate discriminating schedules. He 
calmed the fears of many who dreaded the danger of a 
high tariff by assuring them that American manufac- 
tures were beginning to show sufficient stability to re- 

115 See Savannah Republican, March 18, 21, 1844. 

116 See his speech on his tariff resolutions, March 1, 1842, Niles' 
Register, LXII, 39-43- 

117 Published at the time in the Tennessee Agriculturist, Lagrange 
(Ga.) Herald, and Georgia Journal. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 101 

move them from the class of infant industries and that 
the amount of protection needed by them would regu- 
larly decrease. 118 

These principles were identical with those that the 
southern Whig leaders were announcing both in and out 
of Congress, in their own section and in the North. 
In a speech at New York immediately after the adjourn- 
ment of Congress in 1842, Senator Berrien praised the 
Whig tariff with its protective features and even advo- 
cated the land distribution project as a test of party 
orthodoxy. 119 From the state which, next to South 
Carolina, had protested most loudly against protection 
in the preceding decade, there now went at various 
times T. Butler King, Toombs, Dawson, and again 
Berrien to the cities of New York and Boston, there 
to gain recognition from their tariff speeches as friends 
of commercial prosperity, of national rather than sec- 
tional interests, and of white rather than of slave labor. 
Insisting upon the identity of Whig principles through- 
out the Union, they argued for the removal of the sec- 
tional line which wrongly separated interests that were 
identical, they advocated the expediency of protection 
to domestic industry as essential to national wealth and 
national morality, and closed with an invocation to 
the party to stand by its principles and its measures. 120 

118 N 'lies' Register, LXVI, 105-106, 120, 297-299; Savannah Republican, 
March 25, 1844. Clay wrote to Crittenden from Savannah: " I have not 
seen one Whig during my journey who is not satisfied with the ground 
on which I place the principle of protection in connection with a tariff 
for revenue ". Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 218. 

™Niles' Register, LXI'II, in. 

120 Wheeler, History of Congress, II, 50; Stovall, Life of Toombs, 46; 
Miller, Bench and Bar of Georgia, I, 68-69; Niles' Register, LXVI, 188, 
348-349- Berrien, who in 1831 had denied the constitutionality of a 
tariff for protection and who had taken a leading part in the " Free 
Trade " convention at Philadelphia in September of that year, declared 



102 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

In Congress at the same time, Clingman and Stephens 
defined their position in quite similar language with 
the entire support of their constituents. 

As the tariff became better understood in the South, 
it lost many of its terrors for the people. It was given 
credit for the restoration of prosperity which was coin- 
cident with the enactment of the new measure. 121 When 
in the elections of 1843 this change was put to the 
test of the popular vote, it became clear that the Whigs 
had lost none of their strength in the South. 122 As the 
presidential canvass drew near the Virginia Whigs 
taunted their opponents for the failure of their predic- 
tions as to the effect of the tariff; they accepted the 
issue, and announced their intention to go before the 
country on the tariff of 1842 " in principle and in de- 
tail 'V 23 

The situation in the South was clearly favorable to 
Clay on outstanding issues. His southern tour, coming 
directly before the national convention, made his nomi- 
nation by that body, as the unanimous choice of the 
party, a foregone conclusion. Whigs of all sections 
were enthusiastic in their admiration for the great Ken- 
tuckian while the Democratic party was rent by strug- 
gling factions. 124 

in a Fourth of July speech at Boston in 1844 that free trade was " a 
fallacy uttered but to deceive! A thing practically for the advantage of 
foreign nations, ruinous ... to our own holy brotherhood ", and that 
the question of protection was " a question connected vitally with every 
great interest of the whole country, on which is made to depend the 
national morality ". Ibid. 

121 S. F. Miller to Clay, June 20, 1842, Miller, Bench and Bar of 
Georgia, II, 386; J. Manney to Mangum, Feb. 2, 1846, Mangum MSS. 

122 Clay, Private Correspondence, 480. 

123 Address of Virginia Whig convention, Niles' Register, LXVI, 7-1 1. 

124 Cf. Garnett Andrews to Cobb, March 29; Thos. Ritchie to Cobb, 
May 6, 1844, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. Cf. H. F. 
Regolee to Mangum, Feb. 14, 1844, Mangum MSS. 



GROWTH OF UNITY, 1841-1844 103 

It was a glorious achievement for the Whig party 
that the southern wing was brought into line on the 
leading questions of national policy. It meant that thou- 
sands of southerners who a dozen years before were 
staunch state rights Republicans, "prepared to peril 
life, property, and everything but freedom, in opposi- 
tion to a protective tariff ", were assigned to the ranks 
to battle side by side with the champions of the protec- 
tive policy. 125 Nor was this entirely the unavoidable 
consequence of party organization, or of the moral 
sense of party obligations. For evidence of this fact it 
is necessary but to point to a man like Yeadon of 
Charleston who, in that environment, abandoned the 
Democratic party to become a tariff man, who embraced 
protection and all, and who even argued that South Car- 
olina " ought to be, would be, and should be a tariff 
state ". 126 A perplexing problem had been satisfactorily 
solved. But the party was not to be left for any length 
of time without some equivalent complication. The 
statement which Clay issued from Raleigh of a definite 
position on the vital question of Texan annexation 
brought into party politics the slavery issue in the most 
acute form it had yet assumed. Thus the force of sec- 
tionalism was again set in motion. This time it was 
destined to run its full course, entangling the party 
lines which had thus far withstood the powerful in- 
fluences tending to confuse them. 

123 Calhoun Correspondence, mo. 
126 Niles' Register, LXVII, 26. 



CHAPTER IV. 
The Slavery Question to 1848. 

When the Whig party came into existence the sup- 
porters of the institution of negro slavery had already 
been placed upon the defensive. But the Whig party of 
the South was preeminently, though not exclusively, 
the party of the slave-holder ; in its ranks it included a 
considerable majority of the large cotton, tobacco, rice, 
and sugar planters. The plotted vote by counties of the 
presidential elections from 1836 to 1852 reveals, in 
all the states crossed by the black belt except in North 
and South Carolina, a decided coincidence between the 
Whig strongholds and the regions where the slave pop- 
ulation was in a majority or nearly so, It may be 
stated as a rough but conservative estimate that the 
Whig party in the South, while perhaps not embracing 
more than a substantial majority of all the slave-hol- 
ders, included the possessors of from two-thirds to 
three-fourths of the slave property of the South. 1 

With definite interests in the " peculiar institution ", 
state rights Whigs, especially, came out boldly in its 
defense against the abolitionists and the other anti- 
slavery forces. Agitation was bitterly denounced and 
various remedies to put an end to it were suggested, 
many of them of the more extreme sort. From the Rich- 
mond Whig and other journals came the proposal, seri- 

1 Cf. Montgomery Alabama Journal, Sept. 2, 1850; Richmond Whig, 
Feb. 4, 1850; Richmond Republican, in Washington Republic, Aug. 18, 
1 851; see also maps in appendix, below. 

104 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 105 

ously considered for a time, to suspend commercial 
intercourse with the northern states as one way of forc- 
ing a discontinuance of the activity of the abolitionists. 2 
The northern political journals were challenged to speak 
out and to reveal their attitude toward the cause of the 
agitators. 3 Senator Preston of South Carolina, more- 
over, was reported to have declared in the Senate that 
if the people in his state could catch an abolitionist there 
they would most certainly try him and hang him. In 
the House, Wise was the advocate of the extreme south- 
ern view in denying the power of Congress to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia. Acting in connec- 
tion with the party, too, in its early years was Calhoun 
who, seeing the danger that threatened the institution 
of slavery, came to the rescue as its foremost champion. 

The southern Whigs claimed to be the special friends 
of southern interests. In 1836 they made good use of 
the argument that they were offering a slave-holder as 
their candidate for president. The abolition question 
had an important influence on that contest, leading 
many to support White who felt that sides must be 
taken at once on this new issue. 4 Virginia Democrats 
complained that the Whigs were trying to embroil them 
with their northern friends. 5 

In defining their political relations, however, the char- 
acter of the northern wing of the party had to be taken 

2 Richmond Whig, Sept. 10, New Orleans Bee, Sept. n, 1835, V. S. 
Telegraph, in Niles' Register, XLIX, 77-78. 

3 Richmond Whig, in National Intelligencer, June 2, 1837. The 
National Intelligencer, however, considered it its duty to- exclude the 
discussion of the slavery question from its columns, March 1, 1837. 

4 I. E. Morse to J. B. Kerr, March 12, May 10, 1836, Kerr MSS. 

5 R. H. Parker to Van Buren, Dec. 25, 1835, Van Buren MSS. The 
Whigs of eastern Virginia were extremely hostile to the abolition move- 
ment. Ambler, Sectionalism in Virginia, 224. 



io6 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

into consideration. Within it there was a tendency 
toward hostility to slavery in a much greater degree 
than could be noted in the northern Democracy. 8 The 
ultra-southern Whigs were not long in seeing this. The 
motive behind Calhoun's abandonment of the Whig 
coalition was in part the desire to place himself in a 
position more favorable to a defense of slavery, which 
he saw would soon be the leading political question 
before the country. 7 More independent than most of the 
southern Whigs, Calhoun refused to continue in the 
opposition when he found that he could not bring the 
northern members into a sound position. He then 
forced them to show their hands by introducing his 
famous slavery resolutions of December, 1837, into the 
Senate. 8 

The southern members who had reasons for remain- 
ing in the party, which overbalanced this and other 
disadvantages, were not allowed to close their eyes to 
the situation in the North. The Democrats in their sec- 
tion kept them informed and denounced them as traitors 
to their own interests and enemies of their own institu- 
tions for leaguing themselves with abolitionists. 8 Invol- 
untarily, perhaps, but very perceptibly, the southern 
Whigs, especially after Calhoun and his radicals left, 
became more moderate in their defense of slavery. 

Here again they had the example of their leader be- 
fore them. Clay had tried to reconcile northern and 
southern interests when he offered his resolutions in 
the Senate as substitutes for the more radical state 
rights ones of Calhoun. These calmed the solicitude of 

6 Clay, Private Correspondence, 434, 438; Calhoun Correspondence, 409. 

7 Ibid., 408-409. 

8 Ibid., 386-390. 

3 Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 379; Raleigh Standard, March 21, 1837. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 107 

the more moderate southerners, many of whom were 
unwilling to believe that the South had no other friends 
besides Calhoun and his little party. 10 Others, however, 
demanded more, and when Clay saw the importance of 
securing the endorsement of the southern senators to 
his presidential aspirations, he found it necessary to 
take more advanced ground. So, after he had consulted 
with such southern members as Preston, by whom he 
was probably advised to take this step, 11 he came out 
in the Senate in February, 1839, with a speech against 
abolitionism which denned an attitude sufficiently pro- 
slavery to receive some approval from Calhoun. 12 

But the example had already been set and the other 
leaders were not very slow in following. In Decem- 
ber, 1837, the southern Whig members had taken part in 
the meeting which produced the Patton gag resolution 
and had assisted in the work of securing its passage in 
the House ; a year later when the Whigs from the north- 
ern states unanimously opposed the Atherton gag reso- 
lutions, they were aided, in part intentionally, by the 
negative votes of four southern Whigs and the refusal 
of several others to cast their votes. 13 

In so far as the slavery question entered into the cam- 
paign of 1840, the Whigs were at a disadvantage on 

10 C. M. Noland to Crittenden, Feb. 4, 1838, Crittenden MSS. 

11 See Preston's speech before the Democratic Whig Association in 
Philadelphia, National Intelligencer, March 13, 1839; Wm. C. Preston 
to H. M. Bowyer, Feb. 3, 1839, Preston MSS. 

12 Calhoun Correspondence, 424. 

13 House Journal, 25 Cong., 3 sess., 56-71; Nilcs' Register, LV, 312. 
Several of these explained their votes on the ground that the resolutions 
did not go far enough to protect the South. Wise and Stanly later 
offered more " southern " resolutions. House Journal, 25 Cong., 3 sess., 
167-168. On Jan. 28, 1840, when the gag was applied and inserted as 
the twenty-first rule, Bell, Gentry, and Underwood voted with the northern 
Whigs. Id., 26 Cong., 1 sess., 241-243. 



io8 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

account of the record of the northern wing. The south- 
ern Democratic members of Congress, noting this open- 
ing, drew up an address to the people of the slave-hold- 
ing states in which they reminded their constituents of 
the votes of the northern Whigs on the various resolu- 
tions that had come before Congress. They showed 
how the compact front of the South had been broken by 
the votes of the southern Whigs against the gag resolu- 
tions and predicted further results from the political 
coalition which had brought about the nomination of 
General Harrison. 14 The success of the latter was fol- 
lowed by the very results that had been anticipated. 
As John Quincy Adams continued the struggle for the 
right of petition, he was steadily supported by a handful 
of Whigs from the border states of the South. In the 
special session of 1841 they held the balance of power 
and assisted in striking out the twenty-first rule of the 
House and in preventing a reconsideration of the vote 
which had accomplished this. 15 In 1844, five of them 
shared in Adams's final triumph. 16 Another instance of 
great significance, in which the sectional line yielded to 
that of party, came in the ratification of the nomination 
of Edward Everett as minister to England. After hav- 
ing entered into a secret understanding to reject him 
on account of his anti-slavery convictions, the southern 
Whig senators, placing duty and justice before their 
own honor, broke the pledge of secrecy and made rati- 
fication possible by their votes. 17 Many southern Whigs 

14 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, VI, 579-580. 

15 Five held firm on the vote to reconsider: Botts, Stuart, Kennedy, 
T. F. Marshall, and Underwood. House Journal, 27 Cong., 1 sess., 
81-82. See Botts' and Stuart's cards to their constituents, National 
Intelligencer, June 9, 1841. 

16 Clingman, Kennedy, Preston, Wethered, and White of Kentucky. 
House Journal, 28 Cong., 2 sess., 10-12. 

17 Weed, Autobiography, I, 510; Senate Journal, 27 Cong., 1 sess., 267. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 109 

denounced the Democrats for eternally dragging the 
slavery question before the people to cover the real 
question at issue and to stir up agitation. 18 

With the renewed prominence of the Texas question 
in the presidential contest of 1844, the regular issues 
between the national parties were forced into the back- 
ground and slavery came to the front to hold the stage 
for more than fifteen years. The possibility of an ex- 
tension of the area of slavery had proved attractive to 
southern Whigs as well as Democrats when the question 
of Texas annexation was first raised. In 1837 and 1838 
Senator Preston of South Carolina, who was prepared 
to make an issue with the North on the slavery question, 
championed the cause of annexation and fathered reso- 
lutions in its favor before the Senate. He found, how- 
ever, that he could not unite the South upon the 
question. 19 When, early in 1844, it was brought up again 
by Tyler's treaty, it was still a popular measure with 
most Whig voters in the South, and it was clear that, 
if it became a party question, it might force a certain 
amount of readjustment within the parties. 20 The Whig 
leaders, however, were inclined to oppose the project 
as one which might reflect credit upon Tyler and upon 
Calhoun who was now secretary of state. 21 

The excitement caused by the discussion of the 
annexation proposition forced upon Clay the necessity 
of placing himself on record with regard to it. He was 
then on his triumphal progress through the South 
and used the occasion to ascertain the strength of 

1S Stovall, Life of Toombs, 47; Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, I, 379- 

19 Wm. C. Preston to H. M. Bowyer, Jan. 11, 1839, Preston MSS. 

20 Niles' Register, LXVI, 90; Wilson Lumpkin to Cobb, April 4, 1844, 
Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. 

21 B. W. Leigh to Mangum, March 28, 1844, Mangum MSS. Wm. C. 
Preston to Crittenden, May 4, June 5, 1844, Crittenden MSS. 



no WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

annexation sentiment. His conclusion was that the 
anxiety there was much less than represented and he 
hoped, after consultation with the party leaders, to be 
able to define his position so as to reconcile all interests 
within the party. 22 This he attempted in his famous 
" Raleigh letter " to the editors of the National Intel- 
ligencer — 23 a letter which was drawn up with entire con- 
fidence in the result and with the approval of Badger, 
Stanly, and Governor Morehead. 24 As he summarized 
his views, he considered the annexation of Texas, " at 
this time, without the assent of Mexico, as a measure 
compromising the national character, involving us cer- 
tainly in war with Mexico, probably with other foreign 
powers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, inex- 
pedient in the present financial condition of the country, 
and not called for by any general expression of public 
opinion ". Before publication this letter was submitted 
to several southern Whig members of Congress, who 
seemed to be satisfied with the position he took. 25 

Clay did not entertain the slightest apprehension as 
to the results of the publication of his opinions. He felt 
perfectly sure that the degree of favor which prevailed 
at the South toward annexation was far less than it 
was believed to be. So he took his stand boldly. He 
knew that Van Buren was opposed to annexation and 
he felt that, as they would occupy common ground on 

22 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 217-218, Clay to Crittenden, 
March 24, 1844; Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 17. 

23 National Intelligencer, April 27, 1844. 

24 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 219. Clay to Crittenden from 
Raleigh, April 17, 1844. Cf. A. W. Gay to Mangum, April 20, 1844, 
Mangum MSS. 

23 Ibid.; Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 179. Stephens 
wrote to his brother April 22, 1844, that Clay's letter was " very full, 
clear, and satisfactory ". 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 in 

this point, it was important that he should be the first to 
break silence.' 3 His confidence would seem to be jus- 
tified from the comment made by William C. Preston on 
the letter : " That is a wonderfully clever letter of Mr. 
Clay's. The arguments strong, well put and delivered 
with noble gravity. Certainly the question is shall we 
go to war for Texas? The public mind is not heated 
on the subject in this State nor can the newspapers in- 
flame it." 2T The southern Whig senators, moreover, 
promptly adopted Clay's position and rallied to defeat 
Tyler's annexation treaty. When the vote was taken, 
June 8, 1844, every southern Whig, except Henderson 
of Mississippi, voted in the negative. 28 

The effect of Clay's declaration was to quiet for the 
time the activity of Whig annexationists to whom it 
seemed probable that the letter-writing of the presiden- 
tial candidates would remove the question of annexa- 
tion from the issues of the campaign. Southern Whig 
journals accepted Clay's position but in many cases 
qualified it so as to make it clear that it was only exist- 
ing obstacles, perhaps merely temporary ones, that 
rendered immediate annexation undesirable. 29 Clay 
" would have time for deliberation ", announced the 
Savannah Republican in its comment on the Raleigh 
letter. 80 Many Whigs, however, regretting that Clay 
had not clearly left " a door open for annexation at a 
future time, and when present obstacles might be re- 

28 Clay to Crittenden from Norfolk, April 21, 1844, Crittenden MSS. 

27 Wm. C. Preston to Crittenden, May 4, 1844. In a letter of June 5 
he urged the rejection of the Texas treaty " and when Clay is in and 
Mexico consents, the matter can be reviewed ". Crittenden MSS. 

28 The vote was 16 ayes to 35 nays. Senate Journal, 28 Cong., 1 sess., 
Append., 438. 

29 Raleigh Register, May 3, 1844; Raleigh Star, May 1, 1844. 
80 Savannah Republican, May 1, 1844. 



ii2 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

moved ", were not satisfied with the assurances of the 
press that such was his intention. 31 Clay attempted to 
repair the omission by more letter-writing and in July 
addressed two letters to persons in Alabama. In the 
first he disclaimed any personal objection to the annexa- 
tion of Texas and in the other stated that he would be 
glad to see it annexed if it could be done without dis- 
honor, without war, with the consent of the states and 
on fair and reasonable terms, accompanying this state- 
ment with the promise in the event of his election to 
judge the matter on its own merits. 32 

Clay could not go far enough, however, to satisfy 
all sincere annexationists especially after the Democrats 
nominated Polk on a platform calling for the reannexa- 
tion of Texas and began the campaign in the South 
upon this issue alone. 33 As a result many Whig votes 
in the South were lost. Such losses were especially 
large in Alabama where prominent Whigs went for 
Polk, among them Crabb, a former member of Con- 
gress who had for years been a leading Whig in his 
district. 24 In Kentucky, Thomas F. Marshall, the for- 
mer Whig Congressman from Clay's own district, took 
ground in favor of annexation and became an active 
volunteer orator for Polk and Dallas. 30 To prevent a 
similar result in Georgia, the Whig convention there, 
after the publication of Clay's Raleigh letter, passed 
the resolutions of Alexander H. Stephens favorable to 

31 S. F. Miller to Clay, June, 1844. Miller, Bench and Bar of 
Georgia, II, 386. 

32 Clay to S. F. Miller, July 1, 1844, Tuscaloosa Monitor, July 17, 
1844; Clay to T. M. Peters and J. M. Jackson, July 27, 1844, Niles' 
Register, LXVI, 439. 

33 E. H. Foster to Crittenden, July 13, 1844, Crittenden MSS. 

34 Garrett, Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama, 53. 

35 Washington Globe, Sept. 12, 28, 1844. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 113 

future annexation. 36 Similarly in Virginia, James Lyons 
the Whig elector for the eastern district declared for 
Texas during the canvass. 87 

On the whole, however, the position of Clay received 
the endorsement of the Whigs of the South. There was 
a general feeling among them that the passage of the 
treaty which Tyler had submitted to the Senate would 
be a breach of the national honor and good faith toward 
Mexico. 88 While it was a stock argument that the 
acquisition of Texas would add to the strength of the 
slave power, certain Whigs followed the reasoning of 
Waddy Thompson and opposed annexation on southern 
grounds, namely, that it would cause a migration to the 
new territory and would thereby ultimately endanger 
the slave interests in the old states by rendering slavery 
relatively unprofitable there. 39 It was a valuable cam- 
paign argument, too, in the South to represent the 
Democrats as trying to bring in Texas as a free state. 40 
Many southern Whigs took a non-committal stand on 
Texas, stating that the success of the Whig cause was 
more important than any mere question of annexation. 41 
It was, moreover, hard for the Whigs of either section 
to support the policy of Tyler. He was, without doubt, 
more cordially hated by them than any of their oppo- 
nents ; they believed him to be entirely unscrupulous, 

36 Avarj', Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 17. Cf. Savannah Republi- 
can, June 26; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, June 25, 1844. 

71 Globe, July 25, 1844; Tyler, Tylers, II, 350. 

53 See Mangum to Brother, May 29, 1844, Mangum MSS.; Crittenden 
to C. Coleman, May 16, 1844, Crittenden MSS. 

89 Waddy Thompson to Gales and Seaton, National Intelligencer, July 
6, 1844; Niles' Register, LXVI, 316-319. Cf. J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, 
XII, 68. 

40 Miss. Hist. Soc, Publications, IX, 194; Niles' Register, LXVI, 239; 
Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 1 sess., 64. 

41 Memoir of S. S. Prentiss, II, 315. 



ii4 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

capable of any meanness and perfidy. There was a con- 
sensus of opinion that the annexation scheme was a 
ruse to divide and distract the Whig party in the 
South. 42 

In this campaign the Whigs stood out distinctly as 
the champions of the Union. Even before Clay an- 
nounced his position in regard to Texas, Botts and 
others had opposed annexation, impelled by the fear 
that it would lead to a dissolution of the union. 43 Then 
from the other side came the cry of " Texas or Dis- 
union ! " which was voiced in one form or another in 
many southern Democratic newspapers. The motive 
of desiring to dissolve the Union seemed to many to 
explain Calhoun's connection with the treaty. 44 The 
Whigs came promptly to the rescue. In answer to a 
proposal for a southern convention at Nashville, the 
Whigs of that city met and denounced the project as a 
treasonable plot. When Richmond was suggested as 
a proper place for such an assemblage, the Whigs gath- 
ered at the Clay Club and passed resolutions condemn- 
ing this movement of the Polk party and protesting 
against their city being desecrated in this way. 45 The 
Clay Club of Charleston, which, according to the 
Charleston Mercury, regulated the Whig action of the 
whole state, in a circular addressed " To all who revere 
the Union — who hold fast to the constitution — who 
desire peace, rather than a civil war ", reviewed the 
secession movement of the South Carolina Democrats 

42 See A. H. Stephens to J. Thomas, May 17, 1844, Toombs, Stephens, 
and Cobb Correspondence. 

43 Niles' Register, LXVI, 91; National Intelligencer, April 4, 1844. 

44 Stephens to J. Thomas, May 17, 1844, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence. 

45 Niles' Register, LXVI, 403-406. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 115 

and promised to " continue to resist unwaveringly ".*" 
These efforts were applauded by the Whigs and their 
organs all over the South. 47 The rallying cry became 
" the Union without Texas rather than Texas without 
the Union " ; the foundations were thus laid for the 
course which the party was to pursue in regard to such 
disunion movements in the future. 

The M wolf cry of disunion ", however, was unable 
to offset the disadvantage which the Whigs suffered 
from Clay's attitude toward annexation. 43 The election 
in November was close but it revealed that, despite very 
significant minorities in the southern states, the real 
strength of the Whig party lay in the North. Clay 
failed to secure the votes of any of the states of the 
lower South, while the majority in Tennessee was cut 
down to scarcely more than a hundred. Kentucky and 
North Carolina were the only safe Whig states whose 
interests were fully identified with those of the South. 
Preston wrote to Clay : " For the present the Whig 
party of the South is dispersed ". 40 

An analysis of the presidential vote of 1844 and a 

^ Id., LXVII, 173. The North Carolina Whig Central Committee sent 
out a " confidential " circular to counteract the effort " to carry this 
State for Texas and disunion ". Washington Globe, Oct. 28, 1844. 

* 7 Savannah Republican, July 6, 8, 19, 1844. 

48 Clay's friend, Leslie Combs, admitted that annexation was the rock 
upon which Clay's hopes were wrecked: " Seven free States and eight 
slave States went for it and you do not know how we were pressed in 
Tennessee and I tell you candidly that but for our great attachment to 
Henry Clay, we could not have saved Kentucky — We cannot now sustain 
ourselves in opposition to it. We opposed Tyler's treaty mainly because 
of its secrecy and the people's ignorance of its negotiation. But the 
people have been appealed to and have elected a mere Tom Tit over the 
old Eagle. It is true, fraud, falsehood, and foreigners all helped, but 
here is the naked fact staring us in the face — Our strongest man has 
been beaten by a mere John Doe." Combs to Clayton, Nov. 20, 1844, 
Clayton MSS. 

45 Clay, Private Correspondence, 503. 



n6 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

comparison with the returns of 1840 show that there 
was an actual numerical decrease in the Whig vote in 
the black belt of every state crossed by that belt, with 
the exception of Maryland, Virginia, and Louisiana. 
This decrease varied from less than one per cent, in 
Alabama to twelve per cent, in Mississippi. This is 
explained by the unpopularity there of the party's stand 
on annexation. But Whig losses and Democratic gains 
in the southern states cannot entirely be accounted for 
as the result of the annexation issue. For, although 
the Democratic party profited by these Whig losses in 
the planting districts, still the largest Democratic gains 
were made in the regions where negro slaves were 
in a minority. The percentage of Democratic gain in 
those regions was double that in the black belt except 
in the case of North Carolina. The Whigs, on the other 
hand, made very slight gains there, and in Alabama and 
North Carolina they suffered losses in the neighborhood 
of ten per cent. This shows that the Whigs had a two- 
fold disadvantage in the South compared with their 
position in 1840. The Texas issue cut down their ma- 
jorities in the black belt on the one hand and, on the 
other, they had nothing to correspond to the " Log 
Cabin and Hard Cider " appeal to the Democratic back 
country which Harrison's candidature made in 1840/ 

The Democrats in Congress immediately prepared to 
reap the fruits of their victory by taking up the annexa- 
tion project. This forced the southern Whig members 
to face the necessity of deciding whether to follow their 
sectional interests reenforced by the recent popular 
verdict in favor of Texas, or to follow the dictation of 
party against it. As it turned out, the party line gave 

w Consult the maps plotting these returns, in appendix. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 117 

way just enough to allow the measure to be accom- 
plished. 

In the House, Clingman, citing the charges of Demo- 
cratic fraud, denied that the people had decided for 
Texas in the election. 51 A group of eight southern 
Whigs, however, rallied about the plan of annexation 
by joint resolution, as the only plan which they could 
support. This method was first agreed upon by Ste- 
phens and Milton Brown of Tennessee and the latter 
presented such a resolution in the House. It was eventu- 
ally carried in that body with the assistance of these 
eight members, who were Brown, Peyton, Senter, and 
Ashe of Tennessee, Stephens and Clinch of Georgia, 
Dellet of Alabama, and Newton of Virginia. 52 Before 
the vote was taken Kenneth Rayner, of North Carolina, 
complained that under the management of the chairman 
none of the southern Whigs who were opposed to the 
annexation scheme had been allowed to explain the 
grounds of their opposition. 53 He had previously ex- 
plained that his own efforts against the joint resolution 
were the result of his belief in the unconstitutionality 
of resorting to that form of annexation. 54 In the Sen- 
ate, Foster of Tennessee presented the joint resolution 
simultaneously with its introduction in the other body 
but refused to support it when amended so as to permit 
Tyler to secure annexation by treaty if he preferred. 55 

51 Noes' Register, LXVII, 328-333. 

52 Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 2 sess., 194; cf. Stephens to Colonel R. S. 
Burch, June 15, 1854, Am. Hist. Rev., VIII, 9-10. The position of some 
of them was not sustained by their Whig constituents. Toombs wrote 
Stephens, Feb. 16, 1845, that, he had never found himself differing with 
him on so many points. Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. 

63 Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 2 sess., 191; J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, XII, 
153- 

54 Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 2 sess., Append., 410-41 1. 
■* Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 2 sess., 127, 362. 



n8 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The general body of Whig senators voted against the 
measure; they denied its constitutionality because it 
failed to recognize the control of their own body over 
the treaty-making power. Barrow of Louisiana, how- 
ever, stated his opposition to any scheme of annexation 
as highly detrimental to the whole South and peculiarly 
destructive to the interests of his own state. 56 Rives of 
Virginia, who was not averse to annexation when it 
could be brought about fairly, honorably, and constitu- 
tionally, admitted that its effects on the slave-holding 
interests of his own state would be disastrous, but re- 
fused to have that considered as the explanation of 
his own vote in the negative." Berrien and Archer also 
argued against the expediency of annexation because it 
would be disastrous for the South. 88 Three Whig sen- 
ators, Merrick of Maryland, Henderson of Mississippi, 
and Johnson of Louisiana, voted with the Democrats 
on the final ballot, thus enabling the passage of the 
measure by a vote of twenty-seven to twenty-five. 

The outbreak of the Mexican war fulfilled the pre- 
dictions of those Whigs who had refused to support 
annexation because they wished to avoid a dishonorable 
war. 58 Their opposition to the course of the executive 
was largely placed on that basis. Whig annexationists, 

56 Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 2 sess., Append., 392. The Whig legislature of 
Louisiana, however, had passed resolutions in favor of annexation which 
were presented in the Senate by Barrow's colleague, Senator Johnson. The 
latter, though a Whig, advocated annexation. Senate Journal, 28 Cong., 
2 sess., 127; Niles' Register, LXVII, 346, 371. 

57 Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 2 sess., Append., 382. Cf. C. V. B. Evans to 
Mangum, Feb. 24, 1845, Mangum MSS. 

38 Cong. Globe, 28 Cong., 2 sess., 393, Append., 329, 383. 

89 Cf. John M. Botts to Mangum, Jan. 13, 1846: "Why dont the 
Whig party thunder out against the war! . . . Let them throw down the 
responsibility of the war {which is coming sure) on the authors of it, 
etc." Mangum MSS. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 119 

however, like Stephens and Brown in the House, 
charged that the war was unnecessary and unjustifi- 
able ; they condemned it as a war which aimed solely at 
conquest. Even the lay members of the party soon 
began to lose the enthusiasm which a successful war, 
giving promise of desirable acquisitions of territory, 
usually arouses. They then demanded that the war be 
terminated at the earliest possible occasion. 60 

Meanwhile, the anti-slavery forces in Congress, divin- 
ing Polk's intention to extend our territory at the ex- 
pense of Mexico, hit upon the Wilmot proviso to effect 
the exclusion of slavery from any new acquisition. The 
sectional line became more pronounced than ever. 
Southern Whigs united solidly with southern Demo- 
crats to block the measure but it was due to " northern 
men with southern principles " that they were eventu- 
ally successful. All this was to have its influence on the 
situation within the parties. The northern Whig mem- 
bers had clearly shown their anti-slavery character ; 
it was henceforth a factor to be reckoned with in the 
problem of maintaining party harmony. 

The easiest solution under the circumstances was to 
avoid the issue. This the southern Whigs attempted 
to do by proclaiming their hostility to the acquisition 
of territory as a result of the war. In the House they 
had rallied around the resolutions of Stephens of 
Georgia, repudiating any idea of the dismemberment 
of Mexico and the acquisition of any of her territory, 
while in the Senate they supported the amendment of 
Berrien to the same purport. Pointing to the signs in 
the North of the impending conflict, they called upon 

60 J. B. Lamar to Cobb, June 24, 1846, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence; J. Cameron to Mangum, Feb. 1, 1847, Mangum MSS. 



120 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

their fellow southerners to secure themselves and their 
institution, and appealed to national patriotism to ex- 
clude this direful question from the nation's councils. 61 
This remedy was one in which the northern members 
could cooperate — one, in fact, which they almost de- 
manded as a compromise arrangement, knowing that 
it would exclude territory which seemed almost certain 
to come in open to slavery. 62 Clay from his retirement 
forged the connecting link between the sections of the 
party when, at the close of his Lexington speech on the 
Mexican war, he introduced resolutions disavowing 
" any wish or desire on our part to acquire any foreign 
territory for the purpose of propagating slavery, or of 
introducing slaves from the United States into such 
foreign territory ", 63 

To what extent the southern Whigs were willing to 
stand on this ground in connection with their local 
activity is evident from the following report by a 
Democratic leader on the situation in the Georgia 

81 Cong. Globe, 29 Cong., 2 sess., 228-229, 330, 354, 357, 556. Ex- 
Senator Wm. C. Rives of Virginia was unwilling that there should be 
any territorial acquisition south of 36° 30'. He thought that " the 
reasonable demands of the slave-holding regions " could be satisfied by 
securing " a recognition of the Rio Grande for the western boundary of 
Texas ". Rives to Crittenden, Feb. 5, 8, 1847, Crittenden MSS. Senator 
Archer of Virginia occupied the same ground. Polk, Diary, II, 115. 

62 The editor of the Cincinnati Atlas wrote to Crittenden, Sept. 7, 1847: 
" They [the northern Whigs] offer you a ground of just compromise, 
national, conservative, right and proper in itself, which, to save the 
Union and the Republic, ought to be adopted even if the agitation of 
the slavery question did not threaten the peace of the Union. That 
ground is no territory at all. We do not need another foot; and we 
can get none, either by conquest or purchase, but must come with the 
terrific slavery agitation." Crittenden MSS. 

63 National Intelligencer, Nov. 25, 1847. 

William C. Preston of South Carolina warmly commended the stand 
taken in the Lexington speech, a " State paper " which he thought would 
do much to " arrest the fatal policy which is hurrying us to the most 
disastrous consequences ". Clay, Private Correspondence, 550. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 121 

legislature, a state in which both parties were keen on 
southern rights: 

After a four days discussion in the Senate, on the Wilmot 
Proviso, and the war and the acquisition of Territory, the 
vote was taken last night. The Whigs took high ground against 
the war and denounced it as infamous and iniquitous. They 
also went against any further acquisition of Territory, occupy- 
ing pretty much the position of Mr. Clay in his Lexington 
speech. You will see that a resolution was introduced declar- 
ing that the people of Georgia will adhere to the Missouri 
Compromise line, in the division of Territory that may here- 
after be acquired by the General Government. It was lost 
by a vote of 20 to 26. Of the twenty who voted for it, 18 are 
D. and 2 Whigs ; of those who voted against it 21 are Whigs 
and 5 Democrats. I think the Democrats who voted against 
it, were the vote to be taken over, would record their votes in 
favor of it. As for the Whigs, they are right in a political point 
of view, in opposing it, if they desire to preserve the unity 
of the party North and South. 64 

Even General Taylor announced, after Mexico had 
been placed completely at the mercy of his troops and 
of the other American armies, that he was unutterably 
opposed to the acquisition of any territory south of 
36 30', which might endanger the permanence of the 
Union by fomenting a sectional controversy. 65 

The Whig platform of opposition to the annexation 
of Mexican territory was accepted and made the foun- 
dation for the defence of southern rights. While the 
southern Democrats kept demanding more territory as 
an outlet for the surplus slave population of the near 
future and made glowing representations of the " mani- 
fest destiny " of our nation, their rivals gave answer to 

84 L. J. Glenn to Cobb, Dec. i, 1847, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Cor- 
respondence. 

65 Taylor to Crittenden, Jan. 3, Feb. 13, Crittenden MSS. Taylor to 
Clayton, Sept. 4, 1848, Clayton MSS. 



122 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

them and to the North that they wanted no more terri- 
tory, that they preferred the status quo rather than the 
extension of the slave area at the expense of a rupture 
with the North. 66 " Like the Trojan horse ", said the 
Richmond Whig, " this fatal gift of Mexican territory 
is fraught with danger and death; like the unwary 
Trojans let us not break down the walls and admit it 
into the citadel." C/ The northern Democracy, Berrien 
told his constituents, were determined to engraft the 
Wilmot proviso upon all measures for acquiring terri- 
tory ; would southern men consent to acquire this terri- 
tory won by their common sufferings, blood, and treas- 
ure with slavery excluded from it ? 6S " The truth is ", 
said Botts of Virginia, when canvassing for his reelec- 
tion, " that this proviso, although of Democratic origin 
was adopted by the Whig party of the North, for the 
purpose of furnishing a motive and an object to the 
South to put an end to this unbridled lust for acquisi- 
tion, which, if not arrested, must put an end to all our 
institutions, sooner or later." 6fl Furthermore, Waddy 
Thompson, the late minister to Mexico, better informed, 
perhaps, than any one in the country concerning the 
situation on the Mexican borders, had just asserted 
as the basis of his opposition, that conditions of soil 
and climate would make slavery an impossibility in the 
coveted regions. 70 This of course in the minds of many 
removed the strongest attraction for territorial indem- 

ee See editorials cited in National Intelligencer, June 3, Nov. 4, Dec. 
13, 1847. 
m Niles' Register, LXXIII, 47- 
88 Speech at Dahlonega, Ga., ibid., 125. 
60 Letter in Am. Whig Rev., VI, 509. 
70 Speech at Greenville, S. C., National Intelligencer, Oct. 21. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 123 

nity. 71 It was noted that, if true, this also reduced the 
Wilmot proviso to a mere abstraction, none the less in- 
sulting, but one which could be avoided at the same 
time that the South was saved from being surrounded 
by a cordon of free states. 

The rank and file of the Whig party in the South, 
however, were becoming more and more distrustful 
of the northern wing. They protested against the 
unanimity with which the northern members had sup- 
ported the slavery restriction proviso; 72 the Georgia 
Whigs, in convention assembled, denied its constitution- 
ality and that of any other legislation by Congress re- 
stricting the right to hold slave property in the terri- 
tories ; and many expressed their determination to resist 
its passage even to a dissolution of the Union. 78 The 
nearness of the presidential election, however, tended 
to make them restrain the violence of their utterances. 

When Congress convened in the winter of 1847, 
several southern Whig members were for a time in 
doubt as to whether or not they should support Win- 
throp of Massachusetts, the favorite Whig candidate 
for the speakership, against whom the taint of abolition 
had repeatedly been charged. In throwing in their lot 
with his supporters and aiding in his election they ex- 
posed themselves to the charge of unsoundness to south- 
ern interests. 74 Cabell of Florida refuted such asser- 
tions by calling attention to what was in reality the 
mainstay of the Whig party when the slavery question 

"Mobile Advertiser, Oct. 15, 1847; Savannah Republican, Jan. 15, 
1848. 

72 Raleigh Register, Feb. 28, 1847. 

73 Mobile Advertiser, Oct. 15, 1847. 

74 Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 219, 220; cf. Calhoun 
Correspondence, 1148. 



124 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

became the dominant feature of national politics : " The 
Whig party, North and South, is characterized by a 
spirit of conservatism. It embraces in its comprehen- 
sive view the whole country. It is not influenced by 
a narrow, contracted sectional policy." 75 As a result 
of the confidence in this belief, desertions from the 
party were limited in number though the compactness 
of the party organization was gone. 

With the certainty that peace with Mexico would 
bring territorial indemnity, southern Whigs proceeded 
to give evidence of their soundness on slavery in their 
efforts for a settlement of the question. Most of them 
would have been satisfied merely to have avoided a 
direct issue on the abstract question of the Wilmot 
proviso. Some of the hot-spurs, however, coupled 
threats of dissolution at the passage of the proviso, 
with the demand that the extension of the Missouri 
Compromise line should be agreed upon by mutual 
concession ; while on the opposite extreme a significant 
minority had privately made up their minds to 
acquiesce in the result if the slavery restriction should 
succeed in passing both houses and receive the signa- 
ture of the president. 76 In the meantime the treaty 

75 Cabell to editors of National Intelligencer, Jan. 13, 1848. The 
strongest argument on this point came from a Calhoun man in Alabama: 
" The connexion of the Whig party with the abolitionists has never dis- 
turbed me a great deal for the reason that the Whig party is governed 
by its leading and reflecting men. The tone of the party is derived from 
men of property and character and they are in a measure held to 
respect property guaranteed by the constitution and laws of the country. 
The union of the democratic party with the abolitionists I have regarded 
as far more dangerous because they are held by few restraints and are 
ready to go farther lengths to carry their ends." J. A. Campbell to 
Calhoun, Nov. 20, 1847, Calhoun Correspondence, 1-141; cf. Am. Whig 
Rev., IX, 221. 

76 Am. Whig Rev., VIII, 340; New Orleans Bee, May 31, 1849; cf. 
Calhoun Correspondence, 1147- 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 125 

with Mexico was signed and ratified. It secured for 
the United States extensive territories but left the 
status of slavery there undetermined, and southern 
Whigs, after severe condemnation of the terms," pre- 
pared to cooperate with the Democrats from their own 
section to secure a satisfactory settlement. 

A compromise committee in the Senate headed by 
Clayton of Delaware reported a bill providing territorial 
governments /or Oregon, New Mexico, and California, 
which left the whole question of slavery to .the " tranquil 
operation of the Constitution " as interpreted by the 
Supreme Court. While the measure passed the Senate 
with the cooperation of most of the southern Whig 
members, the debate there showed that the greatest 
diversity existed as to the interpretation of the measure. 
It was felt to be a failure as a compromise in that it 
made no definite concession to either side, but rather 
postponed the settlement to a later occasion. 78 In the 
House the proposition was shelved, partly as a result 
of the efforts of Stephens and a group of southern 
Whigs who accepted the interpretation that the courts 
could only recognize the continuance of the Mexican 
law which prohibited slavery there; they would agree 
to no such adjustment. 79 We are told that the northern 
Whigs repeatedly urged their southern colleagues to aid 
in defeating the Clayton compromise as one from which 
the Democrats might manufacture political capital in 

77 Polk's message had given the impression that he desired to obtain 
all of Mexico; the treaty then was the choice of evils. The cotton 
growers and the commercial interests, moreover, anxiously awaited the 
healthful results of returning peace. See New Orleans Bulletin, March 
14, 1848. 

78 New Orleans Bulletin, Aug. 7, 9, 1848; Savannah Republican, Aug. 
3, 1848; Richmond Whig, in Niles' Register, LXXIV, 107-108. 

79 Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 229-232. 



126 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the presidential election, and promised in return a 
more liberal settlement later. 80 When a separate bill for 
Oregon was pushed through and received the presi- 
dent's signature, he was severely criticized by southern 
Whigs for his betrayal of the South in accepting, though 
under protest, the prohibition of slavery in the newly 
organized territory. 

By this time the presidential campaign was going on 
in full swing and the candidates were already in the 
field. Clay, the logical standard-bearer of the Whig 
party, had little claim to availability at this time ; many 
Whigs showed a positive and settled disinclination to 
support him in another contest. Southern Whigs 
who had assisted in or supported the annexation of 
Texas recalled the stand which he had taken in the 
Raleigh letter ; northern Whigs still resented his effort 
to qualify his position in supplementary letters giving 
a southern point of view. To run Clay under the cir- 
cumstances seemed to be to hazard the defeat of the 
Whig party. Before the middle of 1847, a number of 
the party leaders in Kentucky, Clay's home state, 
virtually gave up all serious consideration of his claims ; 
by the end of the year this was true of the great 
majority of them and the Taylor sentiment in that state 
was overwhelming. 81 Taylor's popularity, however, 
after the early battles of the Mexican war, made 
presidential timber out of the plain frontier general 
who at first refused to take seriously the movement for 
his candidacy. 

Whig leaders in the South, taking advantage of the 

80 Speeches and Writings of T. L. Clingman, 230. 

81 G. W. Williams to Crittenden, Jan. 7; T. B. Stevenson to R. P. 
Letcher, June 20, 1847, etc., Crittenden MSS. Cf. Clay to Crittenden, 
Sept. 26, 1847, ibid. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 127 

popular feeling there, proceeded to direct it so as to 
secure Taylor's nomination by the national con- 
vention. 82 An active group of Taylor men in the House 
of Representatives, including Stephens and Toombs 
of Georgia, Goggin, Preston, and Flournoy of Vir- 
ginia, Hilliard of Alabama; and a few northerners 
including Truman Smith of Connecticut and Lincoln 
of Illinois, together with Senator Crittenden, Clay's 
life-long friend, upheld the general's cause at the 
capitol. 83 

The selection of Taylor by the southern members of 
this group was influenced by other considerations be- 
sides his peculiar availability. This movement was a 
southern insurgent movement which, if successful, 
meant that Clay, the great leader of the national party, 
would be discarded and with him the principles of party 
leadership for which he stood. Clay was above all 
others a national Whig ; he stood at all times for party 
harmony and for a settlement of all sectional differ- 
ences by compromise. He was, moreover, the one 
person to whom was conceded the undisputed right 
of defining party orthodoxy. Taylor, on the other 
hand, had no real political interests or beliefs; party 
lines had thus far concerned him but little and, in view 
of the non-partisan demand for his candidacy, could 
hardly be expected to confine him closely at any time in 
the near future. As a southerner and a slave-holder, 
too, it was to be expected that he would be an uncompro- 

82 Ex-Governor Crawford of Georgia was one of the first advocates of 
Taylor in his state. Savannah Republican, March 10, 1848. Ex-Senator 
Archer of Virginia at an early date staked all faith on Taylor. T. B. 
Stevenson to R. P. Letcher, April 23, 1847; Archer to Crittenden, Sept. 
22, 1847, Crittenden MSS. 

83 Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 21-22; Sargent, Public Men 
and Events, II, 354. 



128 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

mising champion of the interests of his section in the 
controversy that was coming to a head, regardless of 
any views which the northern members of his party 
might hold or urge upon him. 

Toombs and Stephens and the southern Whigs of 
their type realized clearly the meaning and the con- 
sequences of the growing anti-slavery character of the 
northern section of their party. They sought, there- 
fore, to safeguard the interests of their section by elect- 
ing to the presidency a southerner who, they believed, 
could be relied upon to check the progress of the anti- 
slavery movement, if necessary, by the exercise of the 
veto power. Fortune, it seemed, brought forward Gen- 
eral Taylor just at the critical moment. So the struggle 
within the party between the forces of sectionalism and 
the principle of nationalism was begun. In the heat of 
the contest, southern Whig leaders came to believe 
even that Clay had " sold himself body and soul to the 
Northern Anti-slavery Whigs", 84 and avowed their de- 
termination not to vote for him even if he secured the 
nomination. 

Clay, on the other hand, was not without loyal sup- 
porters in the South, Berrien of Georgia, Morehead of 
North Carolina, Langdon of Alabama, and Botts of 
Virginia being among the most prominent of them. 
Many of the Clay following refused to give up their 
candidate in any contingency. The contest was to be 
fought out in the national convention at Philadelphia 
on the seventh of June, although Taylor, true to his dis- 
trust of the convention system, had months before made 

R4 Toombs to James Thomas, April 16, 1848, Toombs, Stephens, and 
Cobb Correspondence. 



4 



9 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 129 

known his fixed purpose not to withdraw from the can- 
vass even if he failed to secure the nomination. 85 

The Whigs of nearly all the southern states had 
before the meeting of the convention expressed their 
preferences for Taylor. He was looked upon as pecu- 
liarly a southern candidate, " a southern man with 
national principles ", 88 Even the Calhoun faction in the 
South was for a time ready to surrender the claims of 
its leader and to rally to the support of Taylor in order 
to " enable the Country to relieve itself of the conjoint 
and infamous burdens of Hunkerism and abolition- 
ism ". 8T " We might as well make up our minds that 
Mr. Clay cannot be our candidate ", wrote a northern 
Whig leader. " Consider that point settled. I assure 
you that southern Whigs with scarcely an exception, 
are for General Taylor. He will be a candidate with 
or without a nomination." M Many northerners, there- 
fore, having seen Clay pronounced hors de combat, lis- 
tened with favor to the plea of availability and came to 
prefer Taylor's nomination. On the other hand, the 
idea of submitting Taylor's name to the national con- 
vention was urged by the southern leaders by reason of 
the advantage it would give in rallying around the gen- 
eral the Whig votes of the northern states. 

During the balloting for the presidential nomination 
at Philadelphia, not a single southern vote was cast for 
a northern man. The first ballot showed the southern 
delegates divided between Clay and Taylor, with four- 



83 Taylor to Crittenden, Jan. 3, Feb. 13, March 25; Crittenden to Clay, 
May 4, 1848, Crittenden MSS. 
88 Savannah Republican, April 18. 

87 Calhoun Correspondence, 11 18. 

88 Washington Hunt to Thurlow Weed, Jan. 1, 1848, Memoir of Thur- 
low Weed, 165. 



% 



130 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

fifths of them lined up for the latter. On the fourth 
and final ballot only five of them cast their votes for 
Clay. 89 Taylor's triumph in the convention was a south- 
ern Whig triumph. It was complete enough to ensure 
his success in the campaign, especially after a satisfac- 
tory platform was drafted for him in the second Allison 
letter. 00 The Whig cause was somewhat weakened, 
however, by the inactivity, indifference, and even open 
opposition of many disaffected Clay Whigs who, 
unreconciled to the defeat of their leader and to the 
nomination of Taylor, were to be found in considerable 
numbers in almost every southern state. 91 

As an independent candidate, Taylor had attracted 
favorable notice from many southern Democrats and 
especially from the Calhoun contingent. Even as the 
Whig nominee, he continued to receive the support of 
many of these people; m for the soundness of Cass, the 
Democratic candidate, was in reality a matter of con- 

89 See proceedings in Niles' Register, LXXIV, 349, 354-358. 

90 Taylor to Capt. J. S. Allison, Sept. 4, 1848, Niles' Register, LXXIV, 
200-201; Thurlow Weed, Autobiography, 580-582. This letter was drafted 
by Crittenden after consultation with Stephens and Toombs. Coleman, 
Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 294; Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. 
Stephens, 227-228. The letter, in which Taylor was described as a Whig, 
" decided, but not ultra " in his devotion to Whig principles, was the final 
concession granted by the southern friends of Taylor to the natural desire 
of northern Whigs that Taylor place himself unequivocally on Whig 
ground. Truman Smith wrote to Crittenden, Sept. 23, 1848: "The 2d 
Allison letter has cleared away many if not most of the difficulties with 
which we have to struggle in the free States. . . . General Taylor now 
stands before the country exactly where he should have placed himself 
last Jan'y and this would have saved us from a multitude of troubles to 
say nothing of possible defeat." Crittenden MSS. 

91 Toombs to Crittenden, Sept. 27; M. P. Gentry to Crittenden, Nov. 
20, etc., Crittenden MSS. N. Dimock to Mangum, Oct. 23, 1848, Man- 
gum MSS. 

82 Waddy Thompson to Crittenden, Sept. 8; J. E. Holmes to Crittenden, 
Sept. 24; Toombs to Crittenden, Sept. 27, 1848, Crittenden MSS.; S. 
Knipley to Clayton, Feb. 16, 1849, Clayton MSS. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 131 

siderable doubt to many of his party in. the South, rather 
on account of than despite his doctrine of popular 
sovereignty as enunciated in the Nicholson letter. 93 
They were told, moreover, that the old issues were of 
little consequence compared with the question of slavery 
in the territories, which had brought about the present 
crisis. They were offered the choice between a southern 
slave-holder and a northern opponent of slavery with 
the declaration of Calhoun still ringing in their ears 
that he would " prefer the election of any respectable 
southern planter whatever to any man of northern birth 
and residence ". 94 

Fillmore, the Whig candidate for the vice-presidency, 
proved to be a dead weight upon Taylor in the South. 
The Democrats did not fail to point out that the confine- 
ment in the White House might prove as fatal to Tay- 
lor, after his many years in the field, as it had been to 
Harrison and that his election might result in placing 
Fillmore, a northerner, in the presidential chair. 95 Fill- 
more's record on the Atherton resolutions was dug up 
and a great ado made over a letter he had written in 
1838 to the abolitionists. 96 This threatened for a time to 
undo all the work of the Whigs in proving the guaranty 
which the institution of slavery would have in the per- 
son of Taylor. The charges against Fillmore, however, 
were laughed down as a matter of little consequence. 97 

The character of the campaign conducted by the 

93 See Montgomery Advertiser, June 21; National Intelligencer, July 
15, 30, Aug. 18, 1848. 

94 Foote, War of the Rebellion, 90. 

95 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., Append., 371. 

98 Savannah Republican, July 6, 7 ; cf. Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence. 

97 Stovall, Life of Toombs, 150. 



132 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Whigs in the South is evident from the following 
description of their methods by an opponent : 

Their speeches consist of three parts — miscellaneous abuse 
of Cass and the Democrats, comments on the danger to 
slavery, and the impossibility of trusting any Northern man, 
exemplified by the course of Van Buren — and lastly a glorifica- 
tion of Old Taylor's battles. I have never heard one of them 
advance a principle — save only that Congress ought to decide 
all questions, as per Allison letter — curious principle for the 
people in primary assemblies, is it not? They refuse to 
acknowledge that they are for any of the old Whig measures — 
won't tell what they are for, and go it blind for Taylor as a 
slaveholder and a hero — this is a fair and candid statement of 
their course. The hardest work that we have, is to meet the 
prejudice against all Northern men, which they foment so 
artfully by taunting us with Van Buren. . . . 

One great advantage the Whigs have in argument is that 
they have no common platform. We are compelled to take a 
moderate compromise ground because our party must be 
satisfied in all sections, while they, in the South, take the 
most ultra Southern ground and abuse us as traitors to the 
South for not going so far as they do, and in the North vice 
versa. They don't care a fig what you prove on them about 
their Northern allies. They don't profess to think alike — 
and they will give up the Northern Whigs freely (except Fill- 
more) if they can involve the Northern Democrats in the same 
odium. 98 

The earnestness of the campaign was leavened by 
the enthusiasm which was aroused by dwelling upon 
the military career of the hero of the Mexican war. 
The narration of a new anecdote about "old Zack" was 
far more effective than any serious argument for, or 
representation of, Whig party principles could have 
been. The large Taylor mass meetings and barbecues 

98 W. H. Hull to Cobb, July 22, 1848, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence. 



SLAVERY QUESTION TO 1848 133 

which were held gave evidence of the trend of public 
opinion. Election day placed Georgia, Florida, and 
Louisiana in the Whig column and brought increased 
majorities in the regular Whig states of Kentucky, 
Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland. 99 

The keenest contemporary analysis of the presidential 
vote in the South was that made by the Democratic 
oigan at New Orleans in commenting on the defeat of 
the cause which it was championing : 

It is in fact the parishes in Louisiana which hold the largest 
number of slaves that have voted the Whig ticket with the 
greatest zeal and unanimity. From St. Barnard up to the 
East Baton Rouge, on both sides of the river, with the sugar 
region of Lafourche, Attakapas, and St. Landry — wherever 
owners of the richest plantations and the largest number of 
slaves are to be found. 

The same phenomenon occurs in other states — in Alabama, 
in Mississippi, in Georgia — throughout the whole South, the 
most strenuous partisans of Taylor and Fillmore have been the 
richest planters and owners of slaves — with the exception of 
South Carolina — and even in Charleston, Holmes, the great 
nullifier, who refused to pay duties on a cargo of sugar, was 
in favor of Taylor, although he could not swallow Fillmore, 
and was elected to Congress in opposition to a Democrat who 
was friendly to Cass and Butler. It is a known fact that in 
the South those who are not owners of slaves are generally 
Democrats — at least the Democratic party of the South is 
composed in a great measure of that description of persons. 
It is a curious condition of affairs at any rate. 100 

This analysis shows the strength of the Whig party 
in the black belt. In that belt, however, the actual Whig 
increase over the vote in 1844 was very slight — a mere 

99 Virginia was lost by nearly 1,500 votes probably because of the defec- 
tion of the Clay men. Cf. Wm. C. Rives to Crittenden, Nov. 25, 1848, 
Crittenden MSS. 

100 Louisiana Courier, as quoted in New Orleans Bulletin, Oct. 31, 
1849; Montgomery Alabatna Journal, Sept. 2, 1850. 



134 • WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

fraction of the gains made in those counties where slaves 
were in a minority and slave-keeping unprofitable. 
Taylor seems to have had considerable success in rally- 
ing around him in the back country the old " Tippe- 
canoe " following of 1840. 101 

It was a glorious Whig victory, but a victory which 
endangered the existence of the national Whig party. 
Taylor had been supported in the South because he had 
stood upon non-partisan and upon southern ground. 
There was little wonder that his supporters were soon 
denouncing " the old Hunker Whig politicians and the 
stale, chronic, and unpopular doctrines of ultra Whig- 
gery" ; 102 but it was not to be expected that Taylor, as 
president, would take such a stand on the slavery ques- 
tion as to drive those southerners who had been most 
enthusiastic over his nomination and election into com- 
plete opposition to him. This, however, is exactly what 
happened. Nevertheless, even if the southern Whigs 
had badly miscalculated in supporting Taylor as the 
southern candidate, the result of their efforts was the 
same as if things had turned out as they had expected. 
For they had demanded and in part secured an align- 
ment on the slavery issue ; in this sense the election of 
1848 was the entering wedge that was destined to split 
the national party into two sections. The election left 
its traces, also, in a similar line of division within the 
party in the southern states. 

101 See maps, in appendix. 

102 A. T. Burnley to Ciittenden, July 22, 1849, Crittenden MSS. Burn- 
ley continued: " Who, for instance, can wisely contend, in the present 
state of public feeling, for a Bank of the U. S. — for a high protective 
Tariff — for a splendid system of internal improvements — for a distribu- 
tion of the proceeds of the public lands etc., etc., etc.? The people don't 
want these things, and they have a right not to have them." Burnley 
had a personal interest in and connection with the Washington Republic, 
the new Whig organ which was just being established to represent the 
views of the Taylor administration. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Southern Movement and the Compromise, 
1848-1850. 

During the stir of the presidential campaign the 
slavery question was agitated in the South apart from 
any direct connection with party politics. It was be- 
lieved by a considerable element there that there was 
need of paying special attention to the defense of south- 
ern rights; many persons calmly and seriously cal- 
culated the value of the Union in the face of the con- 
tinued attacks upon southern institutions. They 
emphasized the vital importance of prompt, decided, 
and efficient action, urged the union of their section 
by the concerted efforts of the leaders of both parties, 
and quietly tested the strength of opinion in favor of 
joint action by all the slave states in the form of a 
southern convention. The fire-eaters or " chivalry " 
politicians, as they were sometimes called, talked of 
forcible resistance and counted the resources of the 
southern states and the possibilities of success. Cal- 
houn's slavery resolutions in the Senate and the Vir- 
ginia resolutions of 1847 na -d given them satisfactory 
ground to stand upon; and, even while the Clayton 
compromise was before Congress, they tried to rally 
the southern members in favor of a convention to 
insist upon a proper recognition of their rights. 1 When 
a territorial bill passed providing for the prohibition 
of slavery in Oregon, this movement became still more 

1 Speeches and Writings of T. L. Clingman, 229. 
135 



136 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

popular; an address calling for a meeting of southern 
members to protest against the action of Congress 
was circulated, but it failed to receive sufficient en- 
dorsement to warrant such action. 2 During the can- 
vass there was also much talk of running an independ- 
ent candidate to offset the nomination of Van Buren 
in the North and to break down the force of party- 
lines in the South. 3 

While the Whigs repelled all insinuations that they 
were untrue to southern rights or even less zealous in 
their defense than the Democrats, they had thus far 
kept free from connection with the extreme remedies 
that had been suggested. They represented, indeed, 
the conservative element in their section; their recent 
training had been in the nationalistic school where they 
had learned to sacrifice many local interests in order to 
secure greater advantages for the whole country. " The 
particular local considerations ", said a southern Whig, 
" which color the opinions of members of the party, in 
various sections of the Union, ought not to interfere 
with the great national measures which we are endea- 
voring to carry out, nor with the confidence due to each 
other." * Amid " differences of opinion as to the good 
and evil of Southern institutions, there is but one opin- 
ion as to the paramount importance of the Union. On 
this first point of policy the Whigs of all the States are 
essentially and profoundly conservative ".° 

2 New Orleans Bulletin, Sept. 7, 1848; see Bocock's speech of Feb. 26, 
1849, Cong. Globe, 30 Cong., 2 sess., Appendix, 181; Speeches and Writ- 
ings of T. L. Clingman, 229. 

3 Calhoun Correspondence, 751, 11 76, 11 77. 

4 " The Union of the Whigs of the whole Union. By a southern 
Whig", in Am. Whig Rev., VI, 515. The anonymous author was Judge 
B. F. Porter, an Alabama Whig leader of state rights antecedents. 
Garrett, Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama, z i 7-. 

6 Am. Whig Rev., IX, 221. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 137 

Prior to the election of 1848 many Whigs of the 
South had, for the sake of unity and harmony, " deemed 
it their party interest to preserve a calm quiet silence " 
on the matter of the Wilmot proviso. 6 In general, 
however, the southern Whigs were not only opposed 
to its enactment but they disbelieved in the constitu- 
tionality of any legislation by Congress on the subject 
of slavery in the territories. The Democratic press, on 
the other hand, soon circulated charges that tens of 
thousands of Whigs in the slave states believed that 
the proviso had a constitutional basis. 7 However un- 
warranted these charges may have been when applied 
to those of the lower South, they were not without a 
foundation when applied to the Whigs of Kentucky 
and the border states where prominent leaders openly 
assumed that position, though ready to oppose the 
slavery restriction with their votes. 8 Leading Whig 
jurists, moreover, as Senators Bell, Badger, and Under- 
wood, were known to uphold its constitutionality, 
all having come out in speeches to that effect in Con- 
gress in the summer of 1848. 9 In private other south- 

9 Calhoun Correspondence, 1136. 

7 Augusta Constitutionalist, Aug. 1, 11, 14, in Savannah Republican, 
Sept. n, 1849. 

8 Louisville Journal, July 21, 1849; Niles' Register, LXXV, 89, 131, 
172. Edward Bates and many other slaveholders in Missouri claimed 
that Congress had plenary powers of legislation over slavery in the terri- 
tories, on the principle of the Missouri Compromise. S. T. Glover to 
Crittenden, Dec. 19, .1848, Crittenden MSS. 

tt Cf. Washington Union, Nov. 9, 1849; Cong. Globe, 30 Cong., 1 sess., 
1001, 1074-1075, and Append., 695, 696, 701, 1165. Badger announced 
his position on June 2 and on the following day Underwood stated: " It 
is said that there is a constitutional prohibition to the passage of a law 
prohibiting slavery in a Territory, but I am inclined to think that there 
is none. I am moreover inclined to the opinion that slavery cannot 
exist in a Territory without the positive sanction of a law tolerating it." 
Kenneth Rayner and other Whig members of the North Carolina legisla- 
ture were unwilling to deny the constitutionality of the congressional 
prohibition of slavery in the new territories. Washington Union, Jan. 
17. 1849. 



138 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

ern Whigs conceded the jurisdiction of Congress over 
slavery in the territories. 10 Clay even admitted to his 
correspondents that the South ought " magnanimously 
to assent " to the exclusion of slavery from the new 
territories. 11 

The Whig victory of 1848 gave the southern ultras 
little occasion for hope. Nothing definite was known 
of Taylor's position on the slavery question but even 
those southerners who were closest to the sources of 
information had their fears. They found themselves 
wondering if he would really veto the Wilmot proviso 
should it come up for his signature. 12 The situation 
was ripe for agitation, and, after the passage of a 
resolution in the House at the opening of Congress 
which instructed the committee on the District of 
Columbia to prepare a bill prohibiting slavery there, 
the southern movement, under the leadership of Cal- 
houn, became more assertive than ever. 

Within a fortnight, a caucus of southern members 
assembled behind closed doors in the Senate chamber 
to deliberate upon the situation. The southern Demo- 
crats went into this new " Carolina movement " with 
considerable unanimity and prepared to carry out the 
program which Calhoun recommended. The southern 
Whigs acted deliberately and cautiously : as conserva- 
tives they regarded it as an unwise and dangerous pro- 

10 Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 245, 288. 

11 Schurz, Henry Clay, II, 323-324. He later declared to the Senate 
that the power of Congress over slavery in the territories was a " power 
adequate either to introduce or to exclude slavery ". Cong. Globe, 31 
Cong., 1 sess., Append., 118. 

12 A. H. Stephens to Crittenden, Dec. 6, 1848; see also G. Duncan to 
Crittenden, Jan. 15, 1849; A. T. Burnley to Crittenden, Jan. 12, 1849. 
Burnley who was a confidential friend of Taylor announced, " I am 
quite certain, if a Bill passes Congress with the Wilmot Proviso, during 
Gen'l Taylor's admin., he will not veto it ". Crittenden MSS. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 139 

ceeding, and as party men they saw in it an attempt 
to embarrass Taylor's administration and the Whig 
party. Many of them refused to have anything to do 
with a movement which might endanger the con- 
tinuance of the Union : " Certainly not ", declared Bad- 
ger, " for the privilege of carrying slaves to California 
or of keeping up private gaols by slave dealers in this 
district." u Others, led by Toombs, Stephens, Clayton, 
Metcalfe, and Underwood, distrustful of the motives 
of Calhoun and his " tail ", attended the meetings in 
order to prevent any excesses, and to foil the attempt 
to form a southern party by controlling the actions of 
those Whigs who looked with favor upon that idea. 14 
Metcalfe was made the presiding officer of the caucus, 
a position which he accepted, at the urgency of the 
conservatives, because of the good influence he thought 
he could exert over the meetings. He was opposed 
to the secrecy of the movement and had fully deter- 
mined before the second session to have the doors 
opened or to retire from the presidency and from the 
meeting, a decision which he later recalled at the advice 
of some of the conservatives. 15 The Whigs went into 
the meetings prepared to commence " the southern 
family war ". Metcalfe as chairman, anticipated a 
warm contest : " The hot-spurs and moderates will I 
trow have it hip and thigh, for I think there is as much 
good game on the part of the moderates, as will be 
found with their antagonists." Though the Whigs 
failed to carry their point of the inexpediency of pub- 
lishing an address at that time; though they failed in 
their attempts to lay it on the table, to adjourn sine die 

13 Geo. Badger to Crittenden, Jan. 13, 1849, Crittenden MSS. 

14 Ibid.; Toombs to Crittenden, Jan. 3, 22, 1849. Crittenden MSS. 
13 J. Metcalfe to Crittenden, Jan. 14, 15, 1849, ibid. 



140 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

before any action was taken, or even to delay action; 
they did succeed in sending Calhoun's draft back to the 
committee which then reported it in a modified form 
and with its title amended so as to make it an address 
to the people of the United States instead of to the 
people of the southern states. Most of the Whigs, 
however, were against any address whatsoever, and 
by abstaining from voting permitted a motion to be 
lost which substituted for Calhoun's address the milder 
one of Berrien which was supported by the moder- 
ate Democrats and by those Whigs who favored an 
address. 16 

The southern Whigs explained their course on 
the ground that General Taylor, as a large slaveholder, 
woufd give ample protection to the rights of the South." 
Stephens and Toombs, who had been instrumental in 
securing Taylor's election, took a leading part in oppos- 
ing Calhoun's plans. Toombs wrote to Governor Crit- 
tenden on January 22 : 

We had a regular flare up in our last meeting, and at the call 
of Calhoun I told them briefly what we were at. I told him 
that the Union of the South was neither possible nor desirable 
until we were ready to dissolve the Union, — that we certainly 
did not intend to advise the people now to look anywhere else 
than to their own government for the prevention of appre- 
hended evils, — that we did not expect an administration which 
we had brought into power would do any act or permit any 

16 Eight Whigs voted to substitute Berrien's address, thirteen ab- 
stained from voting; Gayle of Alabama alone preferred Calhoun's. Two 
Whigs, Gayle and Tompkins of Mississippi, signed Calhoun's address. 
Proceedings in Niles' Register, LXXV, 84-88; Washington Union, Jan. 
28, 29, 1849; Metcalfe to Crittenden, Jan. 23, 1849, Crittenden MSS.; 
Hilliard, Politics and Pen Pictures, 198-200. A good analysis of the 
proceedings from the Whig point of view is to be found in the Am, 
Whig Rev., IX, 221-234. 

17 Polk, Diary, IV, 282; Savannah Republican, Jan. 27, 1849. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 141 

act to be done which it would become necessary for our 
safety to rebel at ; and that the Southern opposition could not 
be sustained by their own friends in acting on such an 
hypothesis, and that we intended to stand by the government 
until it committed an overt act of aggression upon our rights, 
which neither we nor the country ever expected. 18 

To this determination of .the Whigs to withhold 
their sanction, the failure of the attempt as a non- 
partisan movement was attributed. Southern Demo- 
crats who refused to sign Calhoun's address complained 
that it failed to mention the connection of the northern 
Whig party with the abolition agitation merely out 
of fear of offending the sensitiveness of their southern 
Whig friends. They admitted, however, that the lat- 
ter could hardly be expected to participate in a move- 
ment " which rested for its propriety and necessity, 
mainly upon the apprehension that the rights of the 
South were unsafe in the hands of those whom they 
had selected as the faithful guardians of the constitu- 
tional rights of every portion of the Union "." The 
Whig newspapers in the South assured their readers 
that the southern movement was only a means which 
the defeated party was using to recover lost ground 
there. They asserted that the projectors intentionally 
acted from the start in a manner which prevented a 
union of the parties. 30 But, after all, they asked, 
was disunion a remedy for the grievances inflicted by 
the North, was it not rather an act of suicide, in cut- 
ting the South off from all the advantages which she 
enjoyed within the Union? 21 "The South has no 

18 Crittenden MSS.; cf. Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 335-336. 

19 Address of Cobb, Lumpkin, Boyd, and Clark to their constituents. 
Niles' Register, LXXV, 231-232; Savannah Georgian, March 14, 1849. 

20 Savannah Republican, Jan. 25, 1849; Richmond Whig, in Niles' 
Register, LXXV, 74-75. 

21 Savannah Republican, Feb. 15, 1849: "A Parting Word upon the 
Southern Movement." 



142 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

affection for the Wilmot Proviso'', said the New 
Orleans Bee, " and views the aggressions of the North 
with an unfriendly eye, but the evils which may result 
from these contemplated inroads upon our rights are 
a thousandfold more endurable than the woes unnum- 
bered which appal the imagination at the prospect of 
disunion. The South will have none of Mr. Calhoun's 
desperate remedies." 22 

At the very time that the Whigs were attempting to 
defeat Calhoun's program in the southern caucus, a 
number of Whig members of the Virginia and North 
Carolina legislatures were attempting obstructive tac- 
tics against the slavery resolutions then up for dis- 
cussion before those bodies. Their policy was that of 
trying to moderate the defiant tone which was charac- 
teristic of resolutions fathered by southern Demo- 
cratic hot-spurs. 23 In Virginia, the Whigs tried to 
substitute more moderate resolutions and to withhold 
the grant of power to the governor to convene the gen- 
eral assembly in extra session in case of the appre- 
hended encroachments by Congress. 24 But, being in 
a minority, they were overruled and, " with the excep- 
tion of thirteen violent Whigs in the House of Dele- 
gates, and three in the Senate ", 25 they gave their 
votes for the resolutions on their final passage. 23 Fol- 

22 Niles' Register, LXXV, 158. 

23 On the Virginia resolutions of 1847, see Virginia Senate Journal, 
1846-1847, 96, 97, in, 129; House Journal, 1846-1847, 145, 163, 178. 

24 Richmond Enquirer, Jan. 12, 22, 1849. 

25 Washington Union, Jan. 23, 1849. Cralle, a Calhoun supporter in 
Virginia, thought that the Whigs gave their affirmative votes for political 
effect: " Indeed, had the action been postponed until after the result 
of the meeting in Washington was known, I am sure they would not 
have received the votes of a dozen Whigs ", he wrote to Calhoun on 
July 25, 1849, Calhoun Correspondence, 1200. 

28 Acts of Virginia, 1848-1849. 257-258. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 143 

lowing the reception of the news of the southern 
movement in Congress, the house of the Whig legisla- 
ture of North Carolina, which had already agreed 
upon a set of Democratic resolutions despite the op- 
position of a small band of Whigs, adopted a new set 
containing a distinctly Whig resolution expressive of 
strong devotion to the Union. 27 The Florida legisla- 
ture, under Whig control, had already adopted with 
perfect unanimity a set of mild but determined slavery 
resolutions. 28 

To those who were anxiously awaiting the acces- 
sion of the president-elect, it had become perfectly 
evident that the slavery question might prove an 
embarrassing one for the incoming administration. 
Southern Whig leaders, however, hoped to be able to 
secure a satisfactory settlement before the time for 
Taylor's inauguration brought an end to the thirtieth 
Congress. In the House they rallied about the plan 
to admit the new territory as a single state as soon as a 
constitution could be formed and presented. This 
would remove the bone of contention and would add 
but a single state to the strength of the North ; it would, 
moreover, evade the issue of the Wilmot proviso so 
that the honor of the South would not be sacrificed. 
For the southern Whig leaders were by this time con- 
vinced that conditions in the new territory were en- 
tirely unfavorable to the institution of slavery and that 
it could never exist there profitably. 29 

On the day of the last meeting of the southern 
caucus, Preston of Virginia took steps preparatory to 

27 National Intelligencer, Jan. 27, 1849; Niles' Register, LXXIV, 415, 
LXXV, 74, 89, 108-109; Washington Union, Jan. 16, 17, 30. 

28 Acts and Resolutions of Florida, 1848-1849, 111-112. 

29 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 335. 



144 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the introduction of a bill along these lines, as a sub- 
stitute for the territorial bills then before the House. 50 
On the seventh of February, he submitted the measure 
and advocated it in a speech characterized by eloquence 
and logic ; 31 this was a powerful appeal to all sections 
to rally for the settlement of the dangerous question. 
" It is a bill ", he said, "under which neither party is 
victorious and neither party overcomes. It is no 
compromise at all. I do not ask my friends of the 
North to cede anything to us ; I do : lot, as a Southern 
man, surrender anything to .them.' , Though the bill re- 
ceived considerable support, which made its friends ex- 
tremely optimistic regarding its prospects, 82 it was 
never given a fair trial before the House. It was 
amended on a close vote to include an anti-slavery pro- 
viso and on the final vote it did not receive a single 
aye. 33 

In the Senate the advocates of a statehood bill were 
even less successful. There the committee on the judic- 
iary had already made an adverse report on Douglas's 
California statehood bill with an elaborate argument 
directed especially against the expediency of such a 
course at that time. 34 The moderate southern senators 
seemed to have considerable hope that a territorial bill 
would pass unencumbered by the Wilmot proviso, 
while the ultras were determined to yield nothing to 
the North. When Bell later renewed the proposal to 

30 Cong. Globe, 30 Cong., 2 sess., 319; cf. Polk, Diary, IV, 300; 
National Intelligencer, Oct. 18, 1850. 

31 Niles' Register, LXXV, 133-137; Cong. Globe, 30 Cong., 2 sess., 
477-480. 

32 Toombs to Crittenden, Feb. 9, 1849, Crittenden MSS. 

33 Cong. Globe, 30 Cong., 2 sess., 608. 
3i Ibid., 191-192. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 145 

admit the territories into the Union as a single state, 
it was. again stoutly opposed by Berrien and defeated by 
an overwhelming vote. 35 But the closing days of the 
session found the establishment of even a territorial 
government for California to be impossible on account 
of the insistence of the House upon the Wilmot pro- 
viso, and the question was handed over to a new 
administration and a new Congress. 

The congressional elections of 1849 m tne South were 
of more than usu:l importance. 36 The results there 
were to determine whether or not the Whigs would 
have a working majority in the House to sustain the 
executive whom they had just placed in the presidential 
chair with the knowledge that the opposition held con- 
trol of the Senate. For the Whig members who were 
standing for reelection, it was vital to secure the popu- 
lar approval for their refusal to identify themselves 
with the southern movement. Many things placed 
them at a disadvantage in conducting their campaigns. 
In Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, there were 
very visible traces of the disaffection of the Clay 
Whigs, which prevented union and harmony. 37 But 
the slavery question as agitated in Congress was of 
still more importance in determining the result. From 
the first the Democrats accused the Whigs of unsound- 
ness and the more sectional-minded members of the 

25 Ibid., 573, Appendix, 253-255. The vote was 4 to 39. 

36 Almost all of the regular congressional elections of the year were 
in the South. 

37 In the Richmond district of Virginia, the Whigs were divided into 
Botts and anti-Botts factions. Richmond Whig, April 4, 7, 20, 26. 
By placing a rival Whig candidate in the field, Botts was defeated 
and a Democrat elected, and the Taylor Whigs openly rejoiced, id., May 
3; cf. Louisville Journal, Aug. 14; Nashville Republican Banner, Aug. 
15, 1849. 



146 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

latter party were becoming uneasy. The question of 
the southern address was made a stumbling-block 
for the candidates ; they were often condemned for not 
having signed it or worried with questions as to their 
attitude. 38 Several independent Whig candidates were 
in the field who were willing to go farther than the 
regulars in the advocacy of southern rights; indeed, 
the only Whig elected in Virginia was Morton, who 
successfully contested the right of Pendleton to 
be reelected because he was held unsound on the 
slavery issue. 39 The Democrats, who often took strong 
ground in favor of dissolving the Union in case of the 
passage of the Wilmot proviso, 40 charged Taylor with 
being a freesoiler and the southern Whigs with being 
unfaithful to the South. They even declared that 
the election of the Whig candidates would give aid 
and comfort to the enemy, the abolitionists. The 
Whigs answered by showing that, as slave-holders, 
they had especial interests in slavery; they made a 
strong point when they quoted the admission of the 
Louisiana Courier that the large planters generally 
had voted for Taylor. 41 They declared that they were 
prepared to resist all attempts to abridge southern 
rights but that they were opposed to the policy of 
arraying the sections against each other, of" placing 
those two contemptible acquisitions [California and 
New Mexico] in the scale against the advantages of 
the mighty Union of these states '\ 42 

88 Richmond Whig, March 21; Savannah Republican, Sept. 28, 1849. 

89 Richmond Whig, May 22; cf. John Pendleton to Crittenden, April 
30, 1849, Crittenden MSS. 

40 Washington Union, Aug. 6; National Intelligencer, May 7; Rich- 
mond Whig, May 7; Jackson Southron, Oct. 19, 1849. 

41 New Orleans Bulletin, Oct. 31, 1849. 

42 Jackson Southron, Oct. 19, 1849. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 147 

The results of the elections revealed the disorganizing 
effect of the agitation of the slavery question. That the 
Whig losses were not greater is due only to the fact 
that the Democratic party was suffering, though to a 
much less degree, from very similar experiences and 
that certain advantages which the Whigs enjoyed coun- 
terbalanced, in some cases, their unsatisfactory position 
on slavery. The total losses cut down the southern 
Whig representation in the thirty-first Congress by 
eight — enough to destroy the party majority. 48 The 
attempt to rally the Whigs of the South at the critical 
moment had been a failure. 

Meanwhile President Taylor was busy preparing 
himself for the duties of his new office. In the forma- 
tion of a cabinet, he enlisted the aid and advice of the 
leading southern Whigs and his selections met their 
general commendation." But, much to the disapproval 
of southern Democrats and of many southern Whigs, 
he announced no definite views upon slavery in general 
nor upon the Wilmot proviso. In the South it was 
charged by his opponents that Seward was the leading 
friend of the administration and that a majority of the 
cabinet was known to be favorable to the principles of 
the proviso. 43 Exasperated by their defeat in 1848, the 
southern Democrats had from the start prophesied the 
betrayal of the South at the hands of Taylor. They 
forecast the passage of the Wilmot proviso and its 
constitutional sanction by Taylor; they claimed to be- 

43 The Whigs later regained one member in Virginia in a special 
election, Washington Republic, Nov. 14, 1849. 

44 Cf. Stephens to Crittenden, Dec. 6, 1848, Feb. 6, 1849, Crittenden 
MSS.; Crittenden to Clayton, Feb. 17, 1849, Clayton MSS. 

45 National Intelligencer, April 13, 1849; Foote, War of the Rebellion, 



148 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

lieve that the majority of the Whig party of the South 
would not hesitate to sustain Taylor in that act. 48 The 
Democrats of the fire-eating species could see no proper 
guarantees under the constitution but turned their 
minds toward forcible resistance and disunion. They 
could not see, as some of their shrewder brethren did, 
what an obstacle in the way of such designs the southern 
Whigs in their present position constituted. 47 The inev- 
itable result was the renewal of the southern movement 
in a more formidable shape than before — one which was 
avowedly a popular and not a politicians' movement. 

During the summer it took definite form in Missis- 
sippi : a state convention was called to assemble in the 
fall at Jackson " to consider the threatening relations 
between the North and the South." Even the Whigs 
there showed a desire .to participate in the movement 
and to make it entirely non-partisan. The Taylor state 
convention in July, after expressing warm praise for 
the president and attachment to the Union, adopted a 
series of slavery resolutions, based on the doctrines of 
Calhoun, which closed with an expression of approval 
of the call for the October convention. 48 The Jackson 

46 Washington Union, Nov. 9, 1849; cf. Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence for 1849. 

47 W. H. Hull, a Georgia Democrat, wrote to Cobb, Feb. 7, 1849, re- 
ferring to the Democratic excitement: " Is it not perfectly farcical that 
the people who own slaves should be perfectly quiet and we who own 
none should be lashing ourselves into a rage about their wrongs and 
injuries? " He foresaw a Democratic defeat in any attempt at disunion. 
Within a fortnight he wrote: " It is impossible to rally the working 
people of the country to dissolve the Union for the protection of the 
slaveholders against a measure which three-fourths of the slaveholders 
will be sustaining and justifying." Another Democrat, T. W. Thomas, 
wrote to Cobb in a similar tone, May 8: "What folly to ask the Dem- 
ocrats to get into an excitement about niggers when not one in a hun- 
dred of us owns one! " Ibid. 

iS Jackson Southron, July 20, 1849, 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 149 

Southron thus explained to its subscribers the Whig 
idea of such an assemblage: 

They will meet not as citizens of the South, nor to promote 
or attain any sectional measure or interest; but as citizens of 
the American Union, by devising means to preserve, inviolate, 
the compromises of the Federal compact under which the 
Union was accomplished. It will be a time for calmness and 
caution, for firmness and moderation. No excitement, no dis- 
play of passion, not a bravado nor a threat will become the 
dignity of that imposing assemblage. There can be no en- 
deavor to create excitement or animosity in any part of the 
Union ; for the great purpose of this convention will be to pro- 
mote peace and good neighborhood among all the members of 
the confederacy and to allay agitation — to put it down for- 
ever. 49 

When the convention met and proceeded to carry out 
the suggestions made by Calhoun as to the proper course 
to be taken in defence of southern rights, 50 it was com- 
pelled to modify its plans to satisfy a minority of Whigs, 
who declared against making the admission of Cali- 
fornia under the recent statehood movement there a 
cause for resistance, and who considered a southern 
convention inexpedient for the present. They claimed 
that without a recognition of these two objections the 
movement could not retain its non-partisan character. 
The convention yielded the first point in the final reso- 
lutions but refused to concede more than that, except 
to prefix an expression of devotion and attachment to 
the Union. 51 Accordingly, an address was sent out 
inviting the southern states to participate in a conven- 
tion to be held at Nashville on the third of June, 1850. 

49 Sept. 21, 1849. 

50 Calhoun to Colonel C. S. Tarpley, July 9, 1849, Jackson Southron, 
May 24, 1850; also in National Intelligencer, June 4, 18, 1850; Calhoun 
Correspondence, 1206. 

Rl Proceedings in Jackson Southron, Oct. 5, 1849. 



ISO WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

During all this time the nationalistic character of the 
southern wing of the Whig party was becoming more 
and more apparent. The leaders strongly deprecated 
the tendency in their section to resort to fire-eating res- 
olutions and gasconade ; 52 they professed to be as ready 
to defend the just rights of the South as the most loud- 
mouthed agitator. All of the four Whig executives 
south of Mason and Dixon's line were loyal advocates 
of conservative unionism and believers in the future of 
the republic. Governor Thomas S. Brown of Florida 
considered the election of a president from the South 
as "the strongest evidence that could be given of the 
desire of the North to do ample justice to the South 
and to regard her rights ". 58 Governor Manly of North 
Carolina found it possible, contrary to the almost uni- 
versal custom in the South, completely to avoid con- 
sideration of the slavery question in his inaugural 
address. 54 The chief executive of Tennessee, Neil S. 
Brown, deprecated the fanaticism that sought to array 
one section of the Union against the other and defined 
himself as " for the South as long as he could con- 
sistently with the preservation of the Union, but for 
the Union at all events ". B3 Governor Crittenden of 
Kentucky reiterated the lofty sentiments of. his first 

02 Clayton, who became secretary of state under Taylor, wrote to Crit- 
tenden, Jan. 23, 1849, apropos of the Virginia resolutions: "They 
threaten dissolution if a law is passed extending the Maryland law pro- 
hibiting the slave trade in this District over our little potato patch les3 
than seven miles square! .... My soul sickens at the threats to dis- 
solve the Union. This bullying will rouse the North to a great folly 
on their part." Crittenden MSS. 

63 National Intelligencer, Jan. 27, 1849; Niles' Register, LXXV, 108- 
109. 

51 Niles' Register, LXXV, 121-122. 

35 Nashville Republican Banner, April 25, May 9. Cf. his message of 
Oct. 5, in id., Oct. 6, 1849. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 151 

message in regard to the union of the states. Closing 
an urgent appeal in its behalf, he declared : " Dear as 
Kentucky is to us she is not our whole country. The 
Union, the whole Union, is our country ; and proud as 
we justly are in the name of Kentuckian, we have a 
loftier and more far-famed title, that of American citi- 
zen , \ 58 The contrast between the parties, however, was 
best displayed in Maryland, where the Democratic gov- 
ernor spoke of resistance and of making common cause 
with the South, while the Whig president of the Senate 
sought to allay the violent antagonism between the 
two sections of the nation. 57 

The balanced condition of the parties in the lower 
house of the new Congress promised an interesting 
contest over the speakership. The complication antici- 
pated was the question as to how the handful of Free- 
soil men would cast their votes. As they held the bal- 
ance of power, by acting apart from the regular parties, 
they were in a position to dictate terms or to prevent the 
election of an undesirable speaker unless the rule 
requiring an absolute majority for election was aban- 
doned. But there was another little group which de- 
serves more of our attention on account of the inde- 
pendent position which it unexpectedly took in the 
matter of the organization of the House.^ 

The contagion of ultra sectionalism had by this time 
begun to infect the hot-heads of the Whig party in 
the South. Those who had supported Taylor's candi- 
dacy with the evident intention of controlling his action 
and guaranteeing an administration in the interests of 

56 Message of Dec. 31, 1849, in Louisville Journal, Jan. 3, 1850. 

37 Baltimore American, editorial, " Whig and Democratic " in Na- 
tional Intelligencer, Jan. 21; cf. id., Jan. 7; Baltimore Clipper, Jan. 
2, 3» 1850. 



152 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the southern states, found themselves doomed to bitter 
disappointment. Instead, they noted with anxiety that 
the " abolitionist " Seward had forced his way nto 
the president's good graces and installed himself as 
the confidential friend of the administration. 58 Such 
was the state of affairs when the southern members of 
Congress began to arrive in Washington, where, pend- 
ing the opening of the session, they conferred together 
and compared notes on the situation. Clingman of 
North Carolina returned among the first, fresh from 
a tour of the northern states and more impressed than 
ever with the strength of anti-slavery feeling in the 
North. He was completely convinced that the entire 
northern Whig delegation was pledged to apply the 
slavery restriction wherever possible and that in this 
it would have the support of the northern Demo- 
crats. The conviction developed among Clingman, 
Toombs, Stephens, and other southern Whig members, 
that under the generalship of Seward the Whig party 
was to be made the anti-slavery party, in order to 
recuperate its strength in the North; they even came 
to believe that Taylor would sign the proviso if it passed 
Congress. When the president refused to give any 
satisfactory pledges, even of a private character, to 
reassure them, a number of Whigs under the leadership 
of Toombs, who were prepared to disrupt the party 
and to go the length of disunion if need be, decided 
to put their party to a test and to make an issue in 
connection with the speakership.' 9 

58 Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 25; Coleman, Life of J. 
J. Crittenden, I, 365-366. 

59 Speeches and Writings of T. L. Clingman, 231-234; Johnston and 
Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 237-241, 253; Coleman, Life of J. J. 
Crittenden, I, 365. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 153 

On the first of December, Toombs presented to the 
Whig, caucus which was to select a candidate for 
speaker a resolution committing the party against the 
passage of the Wilmot proviso and against the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia. The introduc- 
tion of this resolution naturally caused intense excite- 
ment, which the moderate southern members tried to 
allay by opposing the resolution, though making it clear 
that they agreed with the sentiments expressed. When 
at their suggestion the consideration of the resolution 
was postponed, all but two of the eight who voted in the 
negative withdrew, after which Winthrop was named 
for the speakership. 60 During the prolonged balloting 
these disaffected members gave their votes to southern 
Whigs, sometimes to some of their own number, until 
after three weeks Cobb of Georgia, a Democrat, was 
elected on the sixty-third ballot. Toombs, the spokes- 
man for this group, violently opposed the resolution for 
the adoption of the plurality rule, nor was his purpose 
thus subserved in making possible the election of a 
southerner, for by this time he and his associates 
hoped to force the election of a southern man by south- 
ern votes and one not subservient to the interests of 
party. 61 

The course of these insurgent Whigs was criticised 
and condemned by the vast majority of the party jour- 
nals in the South outside of Georgia. Their course was 
not only " impolitic and unjustifiable but altogether 
unreasonable ", said the Mobile Advertiser. 62 They 

60 Proceedings of caucus, National Intelligencer, Dec. 6, 1849. More- 
head, who was chairman of the Whig caucus, and the southern Whigs 
of more nationalistic stripe believed that the North was entitled to the 
speakership. Morehead to Crittenden, Dec. 25, 1849, Crittenden MSS. 

61 Stephens, Constitutional View, II, 178-179; cf. Calhoun Correspond- 
ence, 783. 

62 Mobile Advertiser, Dec. 12, 1849. 



154 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

" have compromised the harmony of the Whig party 
by their silly attempts at dictation to men fully as able 
to speak for the party as themselves, we hope the Whigs 
will throw them overboard if they persist in their mad 
movements. Better have open foes than disorganizes 
in our own camp ".° 3 " The sentiment of his [Toombs'] 
resolution meets the approval of every Southerner, 
Whig or Democrat, but its introduction in a political 
caucus was ill-timed and unwise/' C4 " It was an aban- 
donment of that conservative position hitherto main- 
tained by Whigs of all sections. It was calculated to 
engender discord, dissolve the ties of an organization, 
and produce that confusion and disorder which must 
defeat the hopes of patriotic Whigs everywhere." 65 
" We presume that the conduct of the recusant Whigs 
is condemned by nine-tenths of the Whigs of the coun- 
try in all sections ", said the Alexandria Gazette. 69 
Almost all agreed that the issue might better have been 
delayed until the question was brought up in the course 
of actual legislation. 

Even after the House had succeeded in effecting an 
organization the excitement continued among the 
southern members. Taylor promptly submitted his 
message, in which he for the first time defined his 
position on the territorial issue. Desirous of seeing 
law and order established in California, he had early 
interested himself in the formation of a state govern- 
ment by the resident population there, as the obvious 
thing after Congress had refused to do it for them. 67 

03 Nashville Republican Banner, Dec. 18, 1849. 

64 New Orleans Bulletin, Dec. 19, 1849. 

63 Washington (N. C.) North State Whig, Dec. 12, 1849. 

66 Quoted in Mobile Advertiser, Jan. 1, 1850. 

67 See Tyler, Tylers, II, 487- 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 155 

Now he announced that this had in all probability been 
accomplished and recommended that Congress consider 
favorably California's application for admission into 
the Union. Nothing was said of the proviso; New 
Mexico, he thought, would soon follow a course sim- 
ilar to that of California, and by working out a solution 
without the intervention of Congress, topics of a sec- 
tional character could be easily avoided. As soon as it 
became known, however, that the newly adopted con- 
stitution of California provided for the prohibition of 
slavery there, the southern Democrats claimed that 
Taylor was willing to commit the heresy of " approving 
the Wilmot Proviso in the constitution of California ", 
or what Calhoun called the " Executive Proviso ". This 
was added to the list of possible grievances for which 
dissolution was regarded as the only proper remedy. 
The Whigs of the South were in a position to appre- 
ciate Taylor's recommendation. This was the solution 
agreed upon by Clayton, Crittenden, and Stephens in 
the previous winter, while the southern caucus was 
attempting to agree on an ultimatum, as the best means 
of ridding the president-elect of a troublesome question. 
They saw that, with numbers against the South, it must 
eventually be beaten on the question of the extension 
of slavery, and that to be beaten " in the least offensive 
and injurious form " was the most they could expect. 08 

68 Cf. Clayton to Crittenden, Dec. 13; Stephens to Crittenden, Dec. 

6, 1848, Crittenden MSS. Crittenden to Clayton, Dec. 19, 1848; Jan. 

7, 1849, Clayton MSS* 

Clayton was clearly responsible, in part at least, for the adoption of 
this plan by President Taylor at the very beginning of his administration. 
On April 18, 1849, he wrote to Crittenden: " As to California and 
New Mexico, I have been wide awake. Everything is done as you 
wanted with it. The plan I proposed to you last winter will be carried 
out fully. The States will be admitted free and Whig! " Crittenden 
MSS. 



156 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The idea had grown upon southern Whigs in general, 
after Preston's plan had been defeated, that the scheme 
of statehood at the initiative of the new territories pre- 
sented the greatest possibilities for a satisfactory ad- 
justment. They affirmed in advance as a fundamental 
state rights principle, the right of the people of the 
territories in forming a state government to decide to 
exclude as well as to adopt slavery. 69 They had ad- 
vanced to the abandoned ground of non-intervention, 
of " popular sovereignty " as understood in the South 
at this time, a ground in which the Democrats no longer 
found a sufficient guarantee of southern rights, for in 
its initial trial it had worked against them. 

When Taylor, at the call of Congress, proceeded to 
define his policy at length in the special message of 
January fifteenth, with which he submitted the docu- 
ments relative to California, he strengthened his posi- 
tion in the South. The Jackson Southron, which alone 
of the Whig papers had taken pains to express dissent 
from the recommendation of his annual message con- 
cerning California, revised its opinions and adopted 
the language of the Louisville Journal: " No message 
since the celebrated proclamation of Jackson against 
nullification has excited anything like such a sensation 
of joy in all patriotic bosoms as the late message of 
General Taylor is now exciting throughout the length 
and breadth of the Union. Everyone feels now that all 
danger is past. The poisonous fangs of faction are 
extracted and though it may still hiss and foam, no one 
will longer heed it." 70 

69 Louisville Journal, April 25, July 10; Mobile Advertiser, July 11; 
Savannah Republican, Oct. 31; Jackson Southron, Dec. 14, 1849. 

70 Jackson Southron, Jan. 4, Feb. 15; Louisville Journal, Jan. 29, 
1850. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 157 

Even Stephens was now ready to believe that if any 
territorial bill should be passed with the Wilmot proviso 
in it, the president would not hesitate to send it back 
with his veto. 71 Taylor was now regarded by southern 
Whigs as standing on the same ground that Calhoun 
had taken in his resolutions. The object in the slavery 
controversy, his southern supporters stated, was " not 
so much to secure the right of carrying slaves into 
California, as to prevent the adoption of a principle, 
which would forever confine slavery within its present 
limits, and deprive the South of any hope of the 
future ": 2 

All this time the coming Nashville convention was 
under discussion in the South. The Whig papers gen- 
erally hesitated to commit themselves to a definite 
attitude and either ignored the recommendation of 
the Mississippi convention or announced it with little 
show of feeling. In Mississippi, whence the call 
issued, the leading Whig journal indicated a willing- 
ness to see the southern states participate in a con- 
vention constituted of able men who could lay aside 
party feelings and sectional prejudices and act for 
the whole Union. 73 The Nashville Republican Banner 
hoped that the necessity for the convention would be 
gone by the appointed date but assured the body a 
welcome if it met. 74 Both it and the Nashville True 
Whig trusted that the southern states would be fully 
represented by able and moderate men. 75 The Savannah 

71 Johnston and Browne, Lif°. of A. H. Stephens, 244; cf. O. Brown 
to Crittenden, Jan. 11, 1850, Crittenden MSS. 

72 Charleston Courier, Washington Correspondence, in Mobile Adver- 
tiser, Feb. 13, 1850. 

73 Jackson Southron, Nov. 30, 1849. 

74 Oct. 15, 1849. 

75 Nashville True Whig, in Jackson Southron, Nov. 30, 1849. 



158 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Republican, however, refused the request of the Demo- 
cratic organ in that city to publish the address of Judge 
Sharkey at the late " Agitators' Convention " in Mis- 
sissippi. The Republican was against such speeches and 
firebrand resolutions; the slavery question, moreover, 
was threadbare and the people were sick of it. 79 

When the southern legislatures met for the winter's 
work, the question of a southern convention was con- 
sidered in connection with the general topic of federal 
relations. In Georgia resolutions were adopted by the 
Democratic majority which provided for the repre- 
sentation of Georgia in the Nashville convention; a 
bill was also passed for the calling of a state convention 
to consider the mode and manner of redress in certain 
contingencies, the last of which was the admission of 
California " in its present pretended organization ". The 
Whigs fought until the end in defence of the right of 
California to admission, grounding their strongest argu- 
ment upon Calhoun's resolutions of 1847. When at 
length they were defeated by the solid array of their 
opponents, a protest signed by forty-two members, all 
Whigs except one, was presented to the house of rep- 
resentatives." The Whigs did not dare to refuse their 
sanction to the Nashville convention out of fear that 
they would be branded as enemies of the South/ 8 The 
resolutions, however, wisely provided that all delegates 
but the four at large should be selected by the people 
of the congressional districts at a special election. 

79 Savannah Republican, Nov. 2, 1849. 

77 Id., Jan. 26, 29, 30, 31. Even Stephens and Toombs objected to 
the position of the Democrats on the resolution concerning the admis- 
sion of California. Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 
.244, 249, 250; Savannah Republican, March 22. 

78 See Louisville Jpu-rng}, April 18, 1850. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 159 

In Alabama, the Whigs were divided in their attitude. 
The Mobile Advertiser early expressed the sentiments 
of the Whigs of that district against the necessity of a 
souchern convention at this time." But those in the 
vicinity of Montgomery, the hot-bed of radicalism under 
the leadership of the fire-eating William L. Yancey, 
were either becoming infected by the contagion or did 
not dare as yet to disclose their real sentiments. 80 Ac- 
cordingly, a proposition to send a representation to 
Nashville, moderate in tone and intended as a compro- 
mise to suit all, unanimously passed the legislature, 
with only slight objections from certain Whigs who 
were opposed to the election of the delegates by the 
legislature. 81 

When the Mississippi legislature was considering the 
recommendation of Governor Quitman's message of 
February n, for a remonstrance against the admission 
of California with the restriction of slavery there, the 
Whig members, seeing in it an attack on President 
Taylor's position, called for a meeting of all persons 
" friendly to the administration of General Taylor and 
to the Union ". In this meeting resolutions were 
adopted stating that the admission of California was 
not an attempt to adopt the Wilmot proviso in another 
form and praising the president's plan of non-interven- 
tion. sa A party struggle was going on in the legislature 
concerning the Nashville convention. There the Whigs 
successfully fought to cancel the selections made by 

79 Feb. 2, 6, 1850. 

80 The Montgomery Alabama Journal of April 24 protested against 
the opposition of the Whigs of Mobile as " calculated to place the 
Whigs of the State in a position in which their opponents had long 
labored to place them and which they do not and will not occupy ". 

81 Mobile Advertiser, Feb. 10, 12, 1850. 

82 Jackson Southron, Feb. 15, 22, 1850. 



160 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the October convention, they themselves favoring the 
election of delegates by the people. Emboldened for 
a time, a group of them attempted to kill the proposition 
for representation there entirely. But in the end they 
were forced to witness the adoption of the plan of 
having the delegates chosen by the legislature in joint 
session, which was even more obnoxious. They assailed 
the plan as illegal and unconstitutional and many of 
them refused to participate in the balloting for dele- 
gates. A protest bearing twenty-seven names, all but 
three being Whigs, was submitted and entered upon the 
journal. 83 The passage of a set of resolutions condemn- 
ing the admission of California and referring the sub- 
ject to the Nashville convention to be considered with 
the other causes of complaint, brought out additional 
protests. 

In the Virginia legislature also the Whigs posed as 
the champions of moderation and of the Union. But 
few could see what good a southern convention could 
effect in advance of some adverse action by Congress. 84 
Many, indeed, opposed it, stating that whatever its 
avowed object it would certainly result in a dissolution 
of the Union. 85 The Whig members succeeded in sub- 
stituting for the original proposition, which provided 
for the appointment of delegates-a.t-large by the legis- 
lature and the payment of their expenses, resolutions 

83 Jackson Southron, Feb. 22, March 1, 8, 15, 1850. The Whigs also 
objected to the proposed appropriation for the expenses of the meeting. 

84 Richmond Whig, Jan. 3, 4, 15, 1850. 

83 See speech of Sheffey (Whig), id., Jan. 15. The Lynchburg Vir- 
ginian was convinced that " disguise it as you will, the object of this 
convention is to familiarize the public mind with the idea of dissolu- 
tion ". Id., Jan. 24, 1850. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 161 

which were said to have been draughted by a Whig. 86 
These looked to the defense of southern rights within 
the Union rather than out of it, although taking a bold 
stand for the united action of the slave states in the 
event of the adoption of certain measures by Congress. 
For the present they recommended the people to take 
up the matter of representation at Nashville in primary 
meetings, which should appoint delegates to district 
conventions authorized to take final action. The Whigs 
of eastern Virginia thought this much necessary to 
repel the charges that they were unsound upon the 
slavery question." 

In Tennessee, the Whig senate passed resolutions 
refusing, on the ground that it was " no part of their 
delegated trusts", to have any connection with the 
proposed convention. 88 The Democrats in the lower 
house, however, having silenced the Whig minority, 
forced through that body a report on federal relations 
and a resolution for the appointment by the governor 
of two delegates from each congressional district. Both 
branches of the Whig legislature of Kentucky frus- 
trated all attempts to endorse the Nashville conven- 
tion. 89 The Maryland house of delegates, on the rec- 
ommendation of the Democratic governor, early de- 
clared in favor of the southern movement, but when the 
resolutions were given their final form by the Whig 
senate, they gave no countenance to the proposed con- 

86 Id., Feb. 14; National Intelligencer, Feb. 16. Cf. Acts of Vir- 
ginia Assembly, 1849-1850, 233-234; Senate Journal, 83-85; House Jour- 
nal, 222-224. 

87 Richmond Whig, April 12, 1850. 

88 Senate Journal, 1849-1850, 764; Nashville Republican Banner, Feb. 
8, 9, 11, 19. 

89 Louisville Journal, Feb. 28, March 1, 2, 4. 



162 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

vention. 80 In Louisiana and Florida, where the Whigs 
also controlled the state legislatures, the project failed 
for want of support from the majority party. In the 
latter state the Whig executive refused to take any 
step in the matter and discouraged the movement. 91 

Most of the southern states had taken their official 
stand or the steps which determined it, by the middle 
of February. As far as the Whigs were concerned 
they acted in accordance with their characteristic con- 
servatism, reenforced by a partisan desire not to 
embarrass the administration, rather than in anticipa- 
tion of any immediate congressional scheme of compro- 
mise. Thus far, indeed, they had seen nothing which 
gave promise of more satisfactory results than the plan 
which Taylor had offered in his messages, even though 
it began with the admission of California as a free 
state. All this would seem to show that the feeling 
for disunion, however much it had infected intemperate 
politicians, had not reached the mass of the party in 
the South. On the other hand, not a few sober students 
of sectional relations — fewer doubtless in the Whig 
than in the Democratic party — were seriously, yet 
quietly and without gasconade, calculating the value of 
the Union. 92 

The southern Whig insurgents in Congress, mean- 
while, were bending their energies to work out the 
intricacies of their peculiar position. Though they had 

90 National Intelligencer, Jan. 25, Feb. 2, March 4; Baltimore Clip- 
per, Feb. 26, 28, March 5, 15, 1850. 

91 Washington Republic, March 7; National Intelligencer, March 7, 
1850. 

82 National Intelligencer, Feb. 2, 11; Johnston and Browne, Life of 
A. H. Stephens, 244, 245, 247; Stephens to J. Thomas, Feb. 13, 1850, 
Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 163 

much in common with the Democrats from their sec- 
tion, such obstacles as differences of opinion regarding 
the admission of California and regarding the value 
of the Union stood in the way of a union of forces. 
This was, moreover, the very point, but in a different 
connection, which separated them from the adminis- 
tration. They recognized the right of California to be 
admitted despite the fact that she had decided to ex- 
clude slavery from her borders, but they insisted upon 
making this a condition upon which other questions 
involving the rights of the South should be settled. 
They considered it unjust to the South to admit Cali- 
fornia on any other basis. Their very position sug- 
gested compromise, but, not even after some of them 
were convinced that Taylor was ready to stop with his 
veto the application of the proviso to the territories, 
could they unite with him on his policy. 

Their position, as finally declared, demanded a com- 
plete and speedy adjustment of the slavery question. 
There was nothing about this which could properly 
be termed radical, although this was not always true of 
the methods to which they resorted. They urged it 
forcefully and vigorously, sometimes approaching gas- 
conade in their efforts to impress the North with the 
danger of disunion. In a speech on the .twenty-second 
of January, Clingman, after showing how little the 
South had to lose by dissolution and what beneficial 
results it would enjoy from that event, proposed to 
obstruct hostile legislation by filibustering. This 
policy was properly considered the platform of the 
ultras. 03 Within a little more than a fortnight, the 

93 National Intelligencer, Feb. i ; Speeches and Writings of T. L. 
Clingman, 235-254. 



164 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Washington correspondent of the Charleston Courier 
announced .that Clingman counted on forty-five mem- 
bers as certain to go with him on this : " His object is 
to show to the northern men that the South is in 
earnest, and I know that he has brought northern men 
to a stand." It was part of the policy of the ultras also 
to change the tone of the National Intelligencer, which 
in their opinion underrated the danger of dissolution 
and did not disclose the real sentiment in the South; 
its optimistic nationalism, indeed, was the basis of the 
hopes of many northerners for success with the Wilmot 
proviso. 94 

Firmly opposed to the admission of California as a 
separate measure, these insurgent Whigs were given 
to understand that Taylor would probably veto any 
bill for the creation of territorial governments. At 
this juncture, Clay offered in the Senate a compromise 
proposition which was nearly all they could hope for, 
although in principle not radically different from the 
non-action policy of President Taylor. This was a 
grand comprehensive scheme, presented in a series of 
eight resolutions but afterward embodied in the " Om- 
nibus Bill ", so called because it undertook the settle- 
ment of all questions of a sectional character. It 
provided for the immediate admission of California; 
for the establishment of territorial governments, with- 
out the Wilmot proviso, in the remainder of the Mexi- 
can cession ; for the adjustment of the territorial claims 
of Texas; for the abolition of the slave trade in the 
District of Columbia; and for a more effective law for 

94 Clingman, 233; cf. letter of Hilliard in National Intelligencer, Feb. 25, 
1850. Several southern Whigs cooperated with Calhoun and the south- 
ern Democrats on the movement to establish a " Southern Press " at 
Washington to represent the interests of the South in a fairer way. 
Washington Union, May 15, 1850. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 165 

the rendition of fugitive slaves. The insurgents saw 
moderate men from the North, both Whigs and Demo- 
crats, evidencing a disposition to be satisfied with what 
this offered them by combining with the southern mem- 
bers in the House to table a Wilmot proviso resolution 
which came up for consideration. Then Webster was 
brought to the support of Clay's proposition and in his 
seventh of March speech offered much to reassure the 
southern representatives. 95 Toombs outlined the situa- 
tion in a letter to Crittenden dated April 25 : " The 
Senate's committee will, I think, agree upon proposi- 
tions which will pass ; this can only be defeated by the 
want of common sense and common prudence on the 
part of Mason, Butler and others of the ' ilk ' in both 
houses of Congress, and the efforts of the administra- 
tion/' " 

The southern Whigs in Congress were anxious that 
Taylor should come over to the proposed compromise 
project. They had lost all confidence in the cabinet and 
in the influences surrounding the president, but, as he 
had maintained a reticent attitude as to his own per- 
sonal views, they had hopes that he could be won over 
to this policy." Stanly and Gentry in the House and 

98 A close observer of these events wrote two years later: "Henry 
Clay had thrown himself into the breach but he was powerless with- 
out some efficient aid from the North. The leading Southern Whigs, 
such as Mangum, and Badger, and Dawson, rallied upon Mr. Webster, 
seized upon him, stuck to him, and finally brought him up to the mark. 
His speech on the seventh of March gave a new impulse to the com- 
promise movement, and the whole country felt that the danger was sub- 
stantially past. But it is notorious that, in the proceedings upon the 
report of the committee of thirteen, Mr. Webster wavered again, vot- 
ing this way and that way, and was only held to his place by the un- 
ceasing vigilance of Messrs, Mangum and Badger." New York Herald, 
April 13, 1852. 

66 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 366; cf. Crittenden MSS. 

81 Humphrey Marshall to Crittenden, March 10, 1850; Morehead to 
Crittenden, March 30, 1850, Crittenden MSS. 



166 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Bell in the Senate stood almost alone by the president's 
plan of admitting California separately. 

Stephens and Toombs, insistent upon securing noth- 
ing short of the desired adjustment, undertook the task 
of again sounding the executive and trying the force 
of their arguments upon him. Toward the last of Feb- 
ruary they had a plain talk with the president and 
found him fully determined to adhere to his original 
policy. In their vexation they unwisely talked of with- 
drawing from Congress and threatened dissolution of 
the Union, whereupon Taylor angrily replied that the 
Union should be preserved at every hazard, and that 
he was prepared, if need be, to take his place at the 
head of the armed forces of the nation to put down 
any attempt to disturb it. 98 This rebuff put an end to 
their talk of disunion as a means of bringing pressure 
to bear upon the administration. 

Before the end of April a committee of three ap- 
pointed by a secret caucus of southern Whig members, 
went singly before the president to present their views 
in favor of the compromise and to remonstrate against 
the continuance of his policy." They spoke for a num- 
ber of Whig members who were ready to abandon the 
administration if Taylor insisted upon carrying it out. 
If the latter wavered as a result of this pressure, he 
soon recovered and at the advice of his cabinet changed 
the editorial management of his organ, the Republic, 
which had quite decided to exert its influence for the 
plan offered in the report of the compromise committee. 

88 New Orleans Bulletin, March 2, 1850; cf. Memoir of Thurlow 
Weed, 177-178; Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, 259-260. 

99 New York Journal of Commerce, Washington Correspondence, 
April 23, May 2; Washington Union, April 28; Speeches and Writings 
of T. L. Clingman, 271; Claiborne, Life and Correspondence of Quit- 
man, II, 32. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 167 

Even Clay, who had thus far maintained civil, though 
not cordial, relations with the administration and who 
had hoped at the beginning to obtain a mild approval 
for his plan, found it necessary to attack the president's 
plan openly before the Senate. 100 

Taylor was preparing to come out more strongly for 
the immediate admission of New Mexico, determined 
to back the boundary claims of the prospective state 
with all the means at his disposal. When this policy 
was known the ultra-southern Whigs became still more 
determined. Stephens and Toombs had a long inter- 
view with the president on the third of July and urged 
him, but entirely without effect, not to carry out his 
intention of sending troops to Santa Fe to occupy the 
disputed territory. In a conversation immediately after 
this with Preston, the secretary of the navy, a Virginia 
Whig whom they regarded as particularly responsible 
for Taylor's present position on slavery, they threatened 
to impeach the president if this course was persisted in. 
Again no impression was made upon the president. He 
was soon engaged in preparing a message in which he 
recommended the immediate admission of California 
and New Mexico and in which he announced his inten- 
tion to prevent Texas, by all the means at his disposal, 
from taking possession of any portion of New Mexico. 101 
This message, however, was never completed. Taylor's 
career was suddenly cut short after a brief and unex- 
pectedly fatal illness, the seriousness of which very 
probably resulted from the mental worry occasioned by 
his own errors of policy and by the trials of an admin- 

100 Clay, Private Correspondence, 599, 600, 602, 604, 610; O. Brown 
to Crittenden, May 23, 1850, Crittenden MSS. 

101 Washington Union, July 18, 21, 1850. 



168 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

istration conducted by an inexperienced and incapable 
cabinet. 102 

By this time the Nashville convention had met, shown 
its hand, and arranged for a second session to take final 
action five weeks after the adjournment of Congress. 
The character of the movement was largely determined 
by the attitude of the southern Whig voters after they 
had been forced in many states to see their representa- 
tives in the legislatures overruled by the Democratic 
majorities. Among them the convention project be- 
came extremely unpopular and was met with manifest 
evidences of disapproval. It was denounced as a delib- 
erate attempt by Democratic politicians to break down 
the support of General Taylor in the South. The 
charge of aiming at disunion was by many made the 
basis of their opposition. This was especially true in 
Tennessee, where, by the middle of February, the Whig 
editors were at work to counteract the support which 
the movement received from the Democrats. "What 
might have been a medicine to the body politic in the 
hands of discreet men, is likely to become a deadly 

102 Mr. Rhodes, History, I, 176, thinks that the president was brood- 
ing over the threat of a vote of censure on his conduct in the Galphin 
business, reported to have been made in an interview between himself 
and Stephens and Toombs which occurred on the second day of his ill- 
ness. This report was circulated by " Henrico ", the Washington cor- 
respondent of the Philadelphia Bulletin, who himself later corrected 
the date to July 3, Taylor then being in apparently perfect health. If 
we are to believe Stephens, no allusion was made in their conversation 
to the Galphin affair. Letter of July 13, in Baltimore Clipper, July 
15, 1850. See also Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 26. The 
subject of that interview was very evidently that of Stephens's letter of 
July 3, in the National Intelligencer, July 4, 1850, in which he announced 
that if the claim of Texas to Santa Fe was disregarded and the matter 
rose to an armed contest, the cause of Texas would be the cause of 
the South. General Pleasonton later, testified that Taylor was at the 
time aroused by the determination of the southern men to organize a 
military force in Texas for the purpose of taking possession of New Mex- 
ico. Memoir of Thurlow Weed, 180- 181. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 169 

potion in the hands of those avowing their purpose to 
destroy it", stated the Nashville Republican Banner 
in its issue of February 12. The Whig press of the 
state unanimously protested against having Tennessee 
made the stamping-ground of the nullifiers and dis- 
unionists. " Tell the plotters to assemble elsewhere ! " 
became the watch-cry. 103 The Democratic advocates 
there, becoming frightened at the result, made haste 
to disavow the idea of resistance and to declare that 
they were willing to see the delegates instructed to 
oppose any measure which would threaten .the perma- 
nence of the Union. 104 

But the charge was taken up in the states of the 
cotton belt and became an even more serious objection 
after Calhoun's speech of the fourth of March was 
read in the Senate. The Whigs stated their fears that 
the strongest supporters of the movement were deter- 
mined to " press on the consideration of the Nashville 
convention the propriety of the treasonable project of 
disunion ". ws The Louisville Journal believed that " Any 
individual who shall go to that body assuming to be 
the representative of the state of Kentucky, had better 
not come back within her limits ". loe By the time ap- 
pointed for the meeting, the Jackson Southron called 
attention to the fact that not a " Whig press in the 
State now approves the Nashville convention", 107 and 
this was almost as true of Whig newspapers in all the 
southern states. 108 

103 Nashville Republican Banner, Feb. 28, March 1, 5, 21, 23. 

104 Nashville True Whig, March 9, in National Intelligencer, March 18. 

105 Jackson Southron, May 31, 1850. 

106 Nationa 1 - Intelligencer, March 30, 1850. 

107 May 31; cf. Natchez Courier, May 15, 22, 1850. 

108 The R a ieigh Star was denounced by the Whig press of North Car- 
olina for favoring it. The North State Whig, after repeated warnings, 
stated on May 22 : " It is no very disagreeable business to expose the 



170 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The possibility of a compromise adjustment in Con- 
gress along the lines of Clay's resolutions, though in 
itself not so important an element with the Whigs as 
might have been expected, was another factor in deter- 
mining the outcome. The Whig journals generally 
favored a settlement by compromise but many were 
convinced from the start that the plan advocated in 
Taylor's California message provided just such an op- 
portunity. Indications of a growing moderation among 
northern men made them even more hopeful and they 
announced that .though they favored the convention in 
case of certain contingencies, in their opinion these 
contingencies were not now liable to occur. 10 " 

When the delegates to the Nashville convention were 
selected the Whigs almost invariably held aloof or took 
an inconspicuous part except where they and the other 
opponents of the movement were strong enough to 
prevent action. In North Carolina, Florida, and Lou- 
isiana, as well as in the border states, the results were 
usually adverse to the convention. The Tennessee 
Democrats, in making up their delegation, found it 
necessary to exclude all but the friends of the move- 
ment to make it possible to act. 110 In Georgia, the insig- 
nificance of the vote cast is largely to be attributed to 
Whig disfavor. Bi-partisan delegations had generally 
been provided for, but in the months preceding the con- 

Raleigh Star. The paper professes to be Whig, and aspires to be one 
of the central Whig organs of the Whig party of North Carolina. Yet 
it approves the Nashville convention." 

109 Jackson Southron, April 5, 1850. Hilliard, who was one of the 
southern Whig insurgents in Congress, wrote a letter to one of his Whig 
constitutents advising them for this reason not to connect themselves 
with the movement for a southern convention. Mobile Advertiser, April 
7, 1850. 

110 Nashville Union, April 13; Nashville Republican Banner, April 15, 
1850. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 171 

vention many of the Whigs resigned, especially where, 
as in Georgia after the April election, they could rightly 
claim that the movement lacked popular support. 111 

Some Whigs, however, thought it wise to prove their 
soundness by participating in the movement. 112 Judge 
Sharkey of Mississippi, who had presided over the 
October convention in his state and who was after- 
ward selected to occupy the chair in the first session, 
earnestly defended the Nashville convention, asserting 
that it was to meet in the interests of moderation and of 
the Union and to secure the interests of the South. 
William M. Murphy, a delegate-at-large from Alabama, 
and a number of other Alabama Whigs desired to see 
a full attendance " not only to aid in uniting the South 
but also in preventing mischief if any should be at- 
tempted ", 113 

When the convention assembled at Nashville in the 
early days of June the great Whig states of Kentucky 
and North Carolina were found to be entirely without 
representation, as were also Louisiana, Maryland, Del- 
aware, and Missouri. Four Whigs were present from 
Mississippi, about a half-dozen from Alabama, besides 
stray representatives from Georgia, Florida, and Vir- 
ginia — in all not over fifteen out of seventy-five mem- 
bers from the states other than Tennessee. In the 
meetings they cooperated to give unanimity to the adop- 
tion of a series of resolutions mild enough to be charac- 
terized as " tame " by the fire-eaters. But when it came 
to passing upon the address which had been drawn up 

111 See letter of Meriwether, ex-representative from Georgia, National 
Intelligencer, June 4, 1850. 

112 Montgomery Alabama Journal, April 19, 24, May 22; cf. Rich- 
mond Whig, April 12, 1850. 

113 Montgomery Alabama Journal, May 22, 1850. 



172 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

by R. Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina, the line of 
cleavage became evident. The Whigs and moderate 
Democrats of the committee submitted a counter- 
report which was made the basis of their attempts to 
amend the address ; they were outvoted, however, and 
were compelled to see the address adopted containing 
" the choicest of disunion tenets ", 114 and a condemna- 
tion of the admission of California even under the terms 
of the Senate compromise. The vote being unanimous 
by states, many of the Whigs took pains to record their 
individual votes in the negative and later refused to 
affix their signatures to the address. 115 

The convention delayed final action until after the 
adjournment of Congress. The character, however, of 
the action taken by Congress in the meantime left no 
room for the work of such a sectional assemblage. 
Taylor's death removed the chief obstacle in the way 
of a fair consideration of the compromise plan of ad- 
justment. The new administration, which trimmed its 
sails to the breeze of southern as well as of northern 
opinion, 118 was found to be favorable to it and from 
this time events took their natural course. It was soon 
seen, however, that the " Omnibus Bill " could not 
sustain the opposition from the North and from the 
South. On the thirty-first of July, it failed to stand the 
test and was cut down until only a single plank, the 
Utah territorial bill, remained. As the northerners 
seemed to show a disposition toward fairness in allow- 

114 Jackson Southron, June 28, 1850. 

113 Proceedings in Nashville Republican Banner, June 4-13, 1850. 

116 See Leslie Combs to Fillmore, July 10, 1850, etc., Fillmore MSS. 
Webster, outlawed by the northern anti-slavery men, was given the 
state portfolio and a leading voice in the selection of the rest of the 
cabinet. See memorandum in Webster's handwriting in the Fillmore 
MSS. 



SOUTHERN MOVEMENT, 1848-1850 173 

ing the non-intervention proposition to be taken up 
ahead of the California bill, the southern Whigs gave 
their hearty cooperation to the attempt to pass the 
measures separately. 

Some of the bolder Whig advocates of southern 
rights attended the caucuses of the southern members 
of the House which were held while the measures were 
up for consideration. In the meeting of August 9, 
Toombs was made chairman of a committee of fifteen 
to report matters for consideration, to which Hilliard, 
Cabell, and Clingman also belonged. Among other 
things the compromise line of 36 ° 30' was recommended 
as a last concession, with that line also for the desired 
southern boundary of California. It is probable that 
the twelve who dissented from these recommendations, 
when submitted to the caucus, were in large part 
Whigs. 1 " 

The course of the southern Whig members on the 
various bills showed their consensus of opinion in favor 
of an immediate adjustment. They were all but unani- 
mous in casting their votes for the Utah and New 
Mexico territorial bills and the Texas boundary settle- 
ment. Even the measure for the admission of Cali- 
fornia received in both houses the support of a majority 
of those members who took part in the voting. The 
adjustment having been completed, the southern Whigs 
gave expression to their relief and departed for their 
homes only to find it necessary, after a brief respite, to 
take up the defence of the compromise measures before 
their constituencies. 

117 Washington Union, Aug. n, 14; Louisville Journal, Aug. 12, 19; 
Mobile Advertiser, Aug. 20, 22, 1850; resolutions in Southern Press, 
Aug. 12; National Intelligencer, Aug. 13, 1850. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Union Movement, 1850-1851. 

In order to understand the precise nature of the 
contests that took place in the southern states within 
the twelvemonth following the completion of the work 
of Congress, it is necessary to go back and to note 
especially the attitude of the lay members of the Whig 
party there toward the problem of securing an adjust- 
ment of the slavery question. Popular feeling within 
the party at the beginning of 1850 in few cases kept 
pace with the ultraism which developed in their dele- 
gation after the assembling of Congress. The senti- 
ment of southern Whigs was all but unanimous in favor 
of a continuance of the Union and the course of dis- 
satisfied politicians found little support. 1 Many, while 
protesting against the application of the Wilmot pro- 
viso, were unwilling to see the bonds of the Union 
severed in case it passed Congress. " Patriotism ", said 
the Mobile Advertiser, " should prompt the North to 
abstain from urging the proviso, and, if the proviso be 
adopted, patriotism should prompt the South to cling 
still to the Union." 2 Every sign of a disposition in the 

*The Washington (N. C.) North State Whig, Feb. 6, 1850, con- 
demned the policy of " Mr. Clingman and his coadjutors in disunion ". 
The North Carolina Argus complained: " We are heartily sick of this 
everlasting twaddle about the South — the South — that word of talis- 

manic charm with southern demagogues In the name of dignity 

and self-respect, let us forbear against further gasconading." National 
Intelligencer, March n, 1850. 

2 Jan. 9; cf. Nashville Republican Banner, Feb. 19, 1850; New Or- 
leans Bee, May 31, 1849. 

.174 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 175 

North toward fairness only added to these sentiments 
of loyalty and moderation, and it was this fundamental 
characteristic which preserved the party tie at home and 
temporarily increased the strength of the Whigs by 
bringing support from the more moderate Democrats. 
The recommendation of Taylor's messages in regard 
to the admission of California was welcomed by his 
supporters in the South. It was soon made the basis of 
their attacks on the consistency of the Democrats in 
giving up the great principle of popular sovereignty, 
upon which they had risked the result of the presidential 
election less than two years before and which had until 
recently been considered the quintessence of Demo- 
cratic orthodoxy in the South. The course of the 
Democrats was denounced as a change of front de- 
signed to embarrass the course and action of the Whig 
administration; a party organ in Mississippi promptly 
pointed out that it was but another expression of the 
Democratic habit in that state to " REPUDIATE V 
The Whigs explained that the anti-slavery clause in 
the California constitution, far from being the same 
thing as the Wilmot proviso, was but the application 
of a sound state rights principle which precluded un- 
constitutional action by Congress. Public meetings 
were held at various points in the southern states of 
the " friends of the integrity of the Union who are 
not opposed to the admission of California with her 
present constitution ". These were generally organ- 
ized by Whigs and the resolutions adopted usually 
closed with an expression of undiminished confidence 
in President Taylor. 4 Accordingly, if the South had 

3 Houston Republican in Washington Republic, Feb. 20. Cf. Jackson 
Southron, Feb. 15; Natchez Courier, May 8; Macon (Ga.) Journal, 
Feb. 13, Vicksburg Whig, in Washington Republic, Feb. 27, 1850. 

4 Jackson Southron, March 1, 15, 22, 1850. 



176 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

united in denying the power of legislation by Congress 
to fix the status of slavery in the territories, it was only 
to divide again, and generally along party lines, over the 
practical question as to whether the admission of Cali- 
fornia should be made a ground for southern resist- 
ance. 

Even after Clay had submitted his compromise reso- 
lutions in the Senate, the Whig press of the South con- 
tinued to support the president's plan. The administra- 
tion platform, however, was not thoroughly understood 
away from the capital. Some thought that his plan was 
to admit California under her constitution and further, 
what he was trying to avoid, to let Congress form ter- 
ritorial governments silent in regard to slavery, for 
the other portions of the acquired territory. 5 For some 
time the people, in their anxiety for a settlement, seemed 
comparatively indifferent to the exact terms that should 
be made, and supposed that Taylor, having made it pos- 
sible to evade the proviso when its passage was immi- 
nent, was now willing to consent to any arrangement 
that might be agreed upon. 6 To many Whig politicians 
in the South, moreover, it seemed essential that the 
plan adopted should have upon it the seal of the presi- 
dent's approval, in order that the Whig administration 
might not be discredited on that score. 7 

But when Clay made his public attack upon the 
administration and revealed Taylor's hostility to the 
report of the committee of thirteen, a division took 
place in the ranks of the party between the supporters 

5 Winchester Republican, in Washington Republic, March 25, 1850. 

Savannah Republican, May 14. Cf. North State Whig, April 10, 
1850. 

7 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, I, 369; cf. Crittenden to Clay- 
ton, April 6, 1850, Clayton MSS. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 177 

of the two plans. The majority of the party organs came 
to prefer the Senate scheme of compromise, though by 
no means did they always take issue with the president. 
In Georgia, it was soon endorsed with unanimity by the 
Whig press; this, however, was hardly true of the 
southern states in general. 8 Out of nearly a score of 
the party prints in Alabama only the Montgomery 
Alabama Journal and the Macon Republican openly 
stated their preferences for the president's plan over 
that of Clay, but they were both leading journals. 9 In 
Mississippi, influential organs like the Jackson South- 
ron, the Natchez Courier, and the Vicksburg Whig 
defended Taylor from Clay's criticisms ; but the strong- 
est supporter of the administration in the South was 
the Richmond Whig, which regarded the plan of non- 
action as most beneficial to the slave-holding states 
and thought that there could be no ingratitude in the 
act of dropping Clay. 10 

The more aggressive supporters of Clay's proposi- 
tion complained that Taylor stood in the way of secur- 
ing a complete settlement. He was charged with being 
" guilty of the grossest infatuation " in adhering to his 
original recommendation and in allowing it to be urged 
as antagonistic to the plan of the Senate committee. 11 
The administration was even warned that if it con- 
tinued to press the issue with the advocates of the latter 
plan, it would find itself utterly without supporters in 
the South." But, came the reply, there is grave danger 

8 Savannah Republican, June 13; Richmond Republican, in Mobile 
Advertiser, June 12, 1850. 

9 Cf. list in Mobile Advertiser, June 25, 1850. 

10 Richmond Whig, June 25, 1850. 

11 Piedmont. Whig, Raleigh Register, Richmond Times, in Washington 
Union, June 4, 1850. 

12 Mobile Advertiser, June 5. Cf. Wm. H. Morton to Cobb, July 
10, 1850, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence, 

13 



178 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

that the compromise will fail anyway on account of 
the opposition of the ultras ; this will prove the sagacity 
and practical shrewdness of President Taylor in ad- 
vising " non-action " as more desirable because more 
practical than " non-intervention ", 13 News from 
Washington, indeed, pronounced the certain doom 
of the omnibus bill, with Taylor calmly biding his 
time. A large number of southern Whigs, who feared 
that the only other alternative was to take up arms 
and resist, were prepared in the event of its defeat to 
see the successful execution of the president's plan for 
the immediate admission of California. 14 

At this point Taylor's death occurred, followed 
within three weeks by the failure of the attempt to 
secure a single comprehensive scheme of adjustment. 
The Whigs in the South had spurned the recommenda- 
tion of a settlement along the line of 36 30' as made 
by the Nashville convention and accepted by most 
southern Democrats as an ultimatum. 15 They now 
urged the separate passage of the measures that had 
comprised the omnibus bill. They called upon all patri- 
ots to rally and especially the Whigs. " The hopes of 
Union and constitutional liberty are in the keeping of 
the Whig party," the Jackson Southron declared. It 
urged the Whigs to rally around Clay and to try again 
for a settlement. 16 Accordingly, as the southern Whigs 
witnessed the course of events in Congress, they com- 
mended the Utah and New Mexico territorial measures 

13 Natchez Courier, May 22, 1850. 

14 New Orleans Picayune, Washington Correspondence, in Mobile Ad- 
vertiser, June 22, July 2; Montgomery Alabama Journal, July 8, 1850. 

15 Jackson Southron, June 14, 21; Natchez Courier, July 17; Savannah 
Republican, July 26; Louisville Journal, June 29; Montgomery Ala- 
bama Journal, July 19. 

16 Aug. 5, 1850: "The Whig party and the Union." 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 179 

and joyfully hailed their success, defended the admis- 
sion of California and the Texas boundary settlement, 
praised the northern men who voted for the fugitive 
slave law counter to their own prejudices and those 
of their constituents, and acquiesced in the abolition 
of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Esto 
perpetua was their earnest and unanimous prayer. 

The southern Democratic ultras, having made the ad- 
mission of California under the terms of her constitu- 
tion a ground for further consideration of the rights 
of the South and the value of the Union, now found it 
incumbent upon them to make good their threats. The 
governors of Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina 
doubted whether the South could honorably continue 
in the Union after it had been thus insulted, despoiled, 
and defrauded by the adjustment. If they were sin- 
cere in their expressions they saw absolutely no good 
in the measures which their faction had been unable 
to prevent and which they thought yielded the very 
birthright of their section. It remained but for them 
to rally their forces under the slogan of resistance. 
The issue was variously stated, but usually as " sub- 
mission or resistance " and " Union or disunion " ; the 
Democratic fire-eaters did not hesitate to choose the lat- 
ter of the alternatives. The way was prepared for agi- 
tation and troublous times in the South. The Whigs, 
cutting short their ecstatic rejoicings over the success 
of the adjustment, prepared to make real their pro- 
fessed championship of the Union, to defend the meas- 
ures the paternity of which was fixed upon Henry 
Clay and the Whig party. 

Georgia was the first southern state to act, not that 
South Carolina was unprepared to show her hand but 
because, while anxious for separation herself despite 



i8o WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the earnest efforts of the loyal Whig minority and their 
Union Democrat co-workers, she realized that any 
cooperative movement of the southern states might 
better start from a state which had not so long borne 
the odium of discredited radicalism. " What will 
Georgia do ? " — this was the inevitable question when 
the California bill was passed, for the legislature had 
declared that that would be an act of aggression which 
would require the calling of a state convention. Gov- 
ernor Towns removed all doubt and, to the intense 
satisfaction of most of the Democrats there, immedi- 
ately issued a spirited proclamation for a convention to 
meet on the tenth of December." 

The Whigs, who had argued against this move, set 
themselves to work to preclude any possible action by 
the convention looking toward disunion. Praising the 
fairness of the adjustment in general, they defended 
the admission of California as a part of it and asserted 
that secession was no proper remedy for existing 
grievances. Georgia, the empire state of the South, 
they said, owed much of her prosperity to the Union and 
would enjoy inestimable advantages from her continu- 
ance in it. 18 They called themselves Union men, mem- 
bers of the " Union and Southern Rights Party ", for 
the regular party line was yielded to meet the exigen- 
cies of such a crisis ; they welcomed the cooperation of 
those Democrats who shared in these sentiments. 

The activity of Stephens and Toombs, who, despite 
their advanced southern ground, became with Howell 
Cobb the foremost supporters of the compromise meas- 

17 Savannah Republican, Sept. 25; National Intelligencer, Sept. 28, 
1850. 

18 Savannah Republican, Sept. 24, 1850. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 181 

ures and the opponents of resistance, did much toward 
determining the result. Stephens had prepared the 
way during a visit to his home while the various bills 
were pending in Congress; Toombs promptly on his 
return issued an address to his constituents showing 
what the South had gained and announcing his readi- 
ness to defend the integrity of the republic. 19 Both im- 
mediately took the stump, explaining the measures and 
counseling moderation ; " by November the result was 
seen when in the election a great majority of Union 
delegates to the convention were chosen. 

The Union victory in Georgia must have had a 
dampening influence on the second session of the 
Nashville convention which met on the twelfth of 
November with ex-Governor McDonald of Georgia 
in the chair. With the southern Whigs unrepresented, 
moreover, little of an authoritative nature could be ex- 
pected of it; the members contented themselves with 
passing strong resolutions condemnatory of the entire 
adjustment and assertive of the right of secession by 
the sovereign states. After six days of fire-eating 
speeches and discussion of radical resolutions the con- 
vention dispersed almost unnoticed. 21 

The action of the Georgia convention was of quite 
a different sort. An editorial published in the Savan- 
nah Republican of October 22 explained the purposes 
of the Union men and suggested for a platform a series 
of resolutions which expressed acquiescence in the 
late action of Congress, but which declared that in 
certain contingencies Georgia would resist even to a 
dissolution of the Union. This was made the basis of 

"Washington Republic, Oct. 15; Stovall, Life of Toombs, 83-85. 

30 Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 27. 

21 Nashville Republican Banner, Nov. 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 1850. 



182 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

an address issued by the Union candidates for the con- 
vention from Chatham county, 32 and for the resolutions 
of a " Union and Southern Rights " meeting there. It 
was commended even outside of the state as a proper 
platform to stand upon 23 and was very evidently the 
foundation of the resolutions which were adopted by 
the convention when it met and which were generally 
known as the Georgia platform. These resolutions 
were drafted by the committee of thirty-three appointed 
for that purpose and reported by Charles J. Jenkins, 
one of the Whig members. 24 

During the session of the convention, meetings of 
the Union members were held in which arrangements 
were made for the thorough organization in Georgia 
of the " Constitutional Union Party ". 25 One delegate 
was even appointed from each county to attend a pro- 
posed National Union meeting at Washington on the 
following twenty-second of February. 28 In these meet- 
ings, Toombs and Stephens, both of whom were mem- 
bers of the convention, were especially prominent. The 
movement was in response to the desire, especially of 
a large number of Whigs in the southern states, for 
a National Union party, 27 such as Clay had hinted at in 
a speech before the Kentucky legislature. 28 The local 

22 Savannah was in Chatham county. 

23 Washington Union, Oct. 27, Nov. 8; Milledgeville Southern Re- 
corder, in id., Nov. 12; Richmond Republican, in Savannah Republi- 
can, Nov. 9; Vicksburg Whig in Id., Dec. 16; New Orleans Bulletin, 
Nov. 23, 1850. 

24 Savannah Republican, Dec. 16, 17, 1850; Johnston and Browne, 
Life of A. H. Stephens, 259-260. 

25 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, Dec. 24; Savannah Republican, 
Dec. 14, 16. 

26 Savannah Republican, Dec. 30, 1850. 

27 Savannah Republican, Oct. 22, Dec. 30; Jackson Southron, Nov. 
15; Mobile Advertiser, Nov. 30, 1850; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, 
Jan. 2i, 1851; Montgomery Alabama Journal, Jan. 28, 185 1. 

28 Washington Republic, Nov. 27, 1850. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 183 

need was evident in such states as Georgia, Mississippi, 
and Alabama, where the influence of the state govern- 
ments had been for years on the side of resistance and 
where local disunion sentiment was strong enough 
to constitute a real danger. But it was intended also as 
a blow at abolitionism which, southern men said, was 
becoming increasingly prosperous in the North because 
both parties found it necessary to court the abolition 
votes. For this reason many Whigs in the slave-hold- 
ing states were willing to consign the old parties, as 
obsolete at best, to the tombs of the Capulets. In their 
support of the compromise they had noted the opposi- 
tion of a large element of their party in Massachusetts, 
New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; they could but 
place such Whigs in the category of opponents along 
with the southern ultras. 29 Looking forward to the 
presidential election two years hence, it was difficult 
for them to think of cooperation with the northern 
wing, and of entering a national convention where 
the Seward " higher law " element was sure to be loudly 
assertive in its demands. Accordingly, the proposed 
Union party was to be national in its scope in order 
to crush agitation in all sections. 

This movement very naturally found little favor 
from those politicians who were concerned in the suc- 
cess of the old parties. The central organs at Wash- 
ington all disapproved of the proposal, although the 
Whig editors viewed it more calmly than the chief of 
the Washington Union, who saw the havoc it would 
play in the southern strongholds of Democracy where 
the idea was most seriously advocated. 30 But probably 

29 See letter of ex-Governor Metcalfe of Kentucky to H. S. Foote, 
Washington Union, Jan. 7, 1851; also Toombs to A. H. Chappell, Feb. 
15, Milledgeville Southern Recorder, March 18, 185 1. 

80 Washington Union, Jan. 3, 1851. 



184 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

more important than this was the obstacle that the 
movement met in those southern states where the 
Whigs were in control or where they constituted a 
powerful minority. There the leading Whig journals 
promptly came out with strong arguments against a 
National Union party. 31 They stated that party affini- 
ties were still strong and that, with the slavery issue 
now pushed into the background, there was much hope 
for a successful reorganization of the old Whig party. 
The New Orleans Bulletin declared that the two parties 
were irreconcilably antagonistic ; it denounced " no- 
partyism " and " suspended partyism " as two of the 
greatest humbugs of the day — " loco-foco humbugs " — 
which prevented the Whigs from triumphing over 
their opponents when divided and which invariably 
accrued to the advantage of the Democratic minority 
which worked with them. 33 

The result in Georgia was largely determined by the 
work of the convention. The Constitutional Union and 
the Southern Rights organizations, however, continued 
and the following state election was contested between 
their candidates. The Union state convention M nomi- 
nated Howell Cobb to oppose McDonald, the Southern 
Rights candidate for governor, and the Union con- 
gressional ticket was made up of former Democrats 
and Whigs, including Stephens and Toombs. An ex- 
citing campaign followed, which resulted in an over- 
whelming Union victory and a complete repudiation 
of southern rights ultraism. 

In Mississippi, the Whigs, insisting that the state had 

81 Richmond Whig, Oct. 26, 1850, Jan. 13, 1851; Nashville Republi- 
can Banner, Jan. 15, 1851. 

82 New Orleans Bulletin, June 26, 1851. 

33 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, June 3, 1851.. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 185 

got all that she had asked for in the October conven- 
tion of 1849, prepared to cooperate with the Union 
Democrats in opposition to the official influence of the 
Quitman administration in favor of the disunion cause. 
In response to an appeal from Senator Foote on his 
return from Congress, a Union convention assembled 
at Jackson on November 18, the day for the meeting 
of the special session of the legislature, and organized 
a central Union Association, which was supplemented 
by local organizations in many of the counties. 34 In 
most cases the officers were taken from the Union 
Democratic members, not on account of any numerical 
preponderance, for the Whigs constituted an over- 
whelming majority, 35 but as an evidence of the interest 
of the latter in the Union party rather than in their 
old party. This was also true somewhat later of the 
candidates whom the Union men selected to oppose the 
State Rights nominees. 

Quitman's message to the special session of the Mis- 
sissippi legislature was an appeal for the ultimate sep- 
aration of the southern states and for a preliminary 
organization by them looking towards a Southern Con- 
federacy. 38 Accordingly, he recommended provision 
for a state convention to begin the work in Mississippi. 
As the legislature took up his program, the Whig 
minority, reenforced at times by one or two Union 
Democrats in the senate and a few of them in the house, 
made every effort at obstruction and at the same time 
unfolded their own policy. They repeatedly offered 
resolutions acquiescing in the recent acts of Congress 

34 Jackson Southron, Nov. 22, 1850. 

35 Five-sixths of the delegates at Jackson were Whigs. Cong. Globe, 
32 Cong., 1 sess., Append., 356. 

30 Jackson Flag of the Union, Nov. 22, 1850. 



186 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

but these were invariably tabled or rejected. Almost 
alone they vainly opposed the resolution of censure 
against Foote for his course in Congress. 81 They 
carried a resolution through the senate to refer the 
question of " Convention or No Convention " to the 
people, only to see it reconsidered and tabled, and de- 
feated in both houses by a party vote whenever the 
proposition was renewed. Whig amendments to the 
effect that the members elected to the convention 
should before taking their seats be required to take 
an oath to support the constitution of the United States 
were shelved in a similar manner. 38 Thereupon, on the 
last day of the session, a majority of the Whig senators 
presented a protest against the bill as passed, denying 
the power of the legislature to call such a convention. 
A supplemental bill which gave the governor large 
discretionary powers to call the convention earlier than 
the appointed time was on the same day defeated by 
the Whigs in the house, after it had passed the other 
body, on a motion which required a four-fifths vote 
to suspend the rules. 80 

As Judge Sharkey wrote at about this time, the 
Democratic leaders in the state with few exceptions 
had " taken a stand in favor of resistance, and they 
are sustained by the party press 'V° The Whigs and 
the Whig organs, however, solidly supported the Union 
cause. 41 Preparations were at once made for the two 

87 Jackson Flag, Nov. 29, 1850; Jan. 3, 1851. The vote in the senate was 
33 to 8, seven Whigs and one Democrat in the negative; in the house, 
50 to 37, thirty Whigs and seven Democrats in the negative. 

38 Id., Jan. 3, 17, 1851. 

™ Id., July II, 1851, quoting House Journal, 66. 

40 Washington Union, Jan. 10; Washington Republic, Jan. 14. 

41 See list in Natchez Courier, Oct. 22, 1850. No less than three Mis- 
sissippi Whig journals took on new names to indicate their predomi- 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 187 

elections, one in September of members of the con- 
vention, the other two months later of state officers 
and members of Congress. A state Union convention 
was held at Jackson on the fifth and sixth of May. 
Senator Foote was named to oppose Quitman in the 
gubernatorial canvass. Union congressional conven- 
tions named candidates to oppose the present members 
of Congress, who all stood for reelection on the State 
Rights ticket. It is noteworthy that the Union nomi- 
nees were all Democrats, making the contest one en- 
tirely between former members of the same political 
party. Nevertheless, despite this and other indica- 
tions of Whig magnanimity, the State Rights Demo- 
crats denounced the Union party as " Whiggery in 
disguise ". Before the Union convention met the 
avowed preference of the Whigs for a Union Demo- 
cratic candidate for governor was stigmatized as a 
" Whig trick ", a ruse " to bait a long Whig ticket for 
State officers with a Democratic candidate for gov- 
ernor ", " to give one Democrat office to secure the 
balance to the Whigs"; said the Monticello Journal, 
" though one should arise from death and proclaim 
the contrary, everybody would know that the resur- 
rected gentleman was telling a Whig lie ". 42 The state 
ticket that was named included two Whigs and two 
Democrats, the former for the offices of secretary of 
state and treasurer.* 5 

The convention election resulted in the choice of an 
overwhelming majority of Union men. Quitman, tak- 

nating characteristic. The Jackson Southron became the Flag of the 
Union; the Oxford Whig Star became the Star of the Union; and the 
Carrolton Whig became the Union Flag. 

42 Natchez Courier, April 29. 

43 Id., May 16, 1851. 



188 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

ing this as satisfactory evidence that he was not prop- 
erly supported in his position, immediately resigned 
his candidacy for reelection. He and the " resisters " 
had moderated their tone as the election approached; 
now they stated that they were willing to submit to the 
will of the majority and abandon the resistance issue. 44 
The heading of the " Democratic State Rights Ticket " 
was changed to " Democratic State Ticket " and the 
rest of the canvass was made on the basis of the old 
party organizations despite the protests of the Union 
men. Senator Jefferson Davis became the candidate of 
the party in place of Quitman and the election in 
November, returning a majority of a bare thousand 
for Foote, gave evidence of the healing of the schism 
in the Democratic party. 43 It remained but for the 
convention, which convened immediately after this, to 
undo all that had been done in Mississippi looking to 
disunion by passing resolutions commendatory of the 
Union, acquiescing in the compromise, condemning the 
calling of the convention, and declaring against the 
right of secession. 40 

In Alabama attention was centred on the August 
elections of 1851, for Governor Collier, a fairly mod- 
erate southern rights man, had declined to convene the 
legislature in extra session in the winter following 
the adjustment by Congress. 47 Of this adjustment the 
Whigs there, as elsewhere, were the strong champions 
and upholders. Hilliard, though circumstances pre- 
vented his return to Alabama in the short interval 
between the sessions of Congress, wrote several letters 

44 Natchez Free Trader, Sept. 10, 1850. 

43 The Union majority for the convention had been 7000. 

48 Jackson Flag of the Union, Nov. 21, 1851. 

47 Mobile Advertiser, Nov. 3, 4, 1850. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 189 

to his constituents, all defending the compromise meas- 
ures and urging that the adjustment be sustained in 
his state.* 8 The disunion issue was not so definitely set 
before the people of Alabama, as there had been no 
special session and no question of a state convention. 
The disorganizing forces, however, acting under the 
influence of such leaders as Yancey, were no less pow- 
erful, though they worked without the declared official 
influence of the state government. 

Union Southern Rights associations and a central 
organization were formed 49 but, on account of some of 
the circumstances that have been noted above, the 
Democratic tie remained firmer in Alabama than in 
either Georgia or Mississippi. 50 After the most promi- 
nent Union Democrats had declined to become candi- 
dates to contest the reelection of Governor Collier, 51 
who maintained a rather non-committal attitude, the 
idea of a Union state nominating convention was given 
up and the contest was made over the elections of 
congressmen and of members of the state legislature. 
An important canvass followed, made brilliant by such 
contests as that between Hilliard and Yancey, neither 
of them candidates, in behalf of the Union and South- 
ern Rights candidates respectively for Hilliard's seat 
in Congress. 

Four Whigs and three Democrats constituted the 

4S Montgomery Alabama Journal, Oct. g, Nov. i, Dec. 17, 1850. 

49 Hilliard to Fillmore, Jan. 9, March 20, April 22, 1851, Fillmore 
MSS. 

50 The disunion men there more than in other states tried to discredit 
the Union movement in the eyes of Democrats by applying to it such 
epithets as " Federalists ", " Feds ", " Submissionists ", " Soapies ", 
" Coons ", " Coonites ", " Coalitionists ", " Dirt-eaters ", etc. Mont- 
gomery Alabama Journal, May 30; Mobile Register, June 20, 1851. 

81 Mobile Advertiser, March 13, 30, July 1, 6, 17, 18, 22; Montgomery 
Alabama Journal, June 4, 9, 1851. 



igo WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Union congressional ticket, and two of each, a majority 
of the delegation, were elected. The new legislature 
was safely Union in both houses, but, according to 
former affiliations, the senate was Whig and the house 
Democratic. 52 When, however, the legislature con- 
vened in November, 185 1, the Southern Rights Demo- 
crats hauled out the old party line and dragged the 
Union Democrats back into the ranks of the party, 
thus causing a situation which proved to be very 
embarassing to the Whigs. Being in control of the 
senate, the latter pressed through that body a set of 
comprehensive resolutions on federal relations defin- 
ing their position very definitely on the right of seces- 
sion. These were blocked in the house; hence the 
Whigs had to content themselves with the house reso- 
lutions which merely approved of the votes of the 
Alabama senators on the compromise measures. 53 But, 
what was worse than this, they had to witness the 
election of well-known fire-eaters to the most important 
state offices, to swallow a Democratic gerrymandering 
apportionment bill, and to see the election of a United 
States senator postponed to an occasion more favorable 
to the Democrats." 

In Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and 
North Carolina, the identity of the old parties was 

53 In these Union versus Southern Rights contests in Georgia, Mis- 
sissippi, and Alabama, the Whig counties in the black belt generally 
returned Union majorities of the same proportions as their Whig major- 
ities in the presidential elections. The returns further show a strong 
Union vote in the up-country counties; this makes it clear that the 
Democrats there were beginning to realize how absurdly anomalous it 
was that the people who did not own slaves should vote to dissolve the 
Union for the protection of the slaveholders against measures which 
most of the slaveholders were sustaining and justifying. See map in 
appendix. 

53 Acts of Alabama, 1851-1852, 535. 

54 Montgomery Alabama Journal, Feb. 18, 1852. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 191 

retained during this critical period. There the com- 
promise measures came to be acquiesced in by the vast 
majority of the voters and the question of disunion 
did not become a vital question in the elections. But 
the Whig attitude was essentially different from that 
of the Democrats. While the latter denounced the 
adjustment as unequal, unjust, oppressive, and de- 
grading, " the miscalled compromise ", B5 their oppo- 
nents united in its praise, stated their confidence in the 
good faith of the North, and prepared not only to 
sustain the law themselves but also to compel others to 
sustain it. M Democrats who inclined toward similar 
sentiments were spurned in their party as the dupes of 
the Whigs. Aided by the divided condition of their 
opponents, the Whigs recovered control of Tennessee, 
electing their candidate for governor and a majority of 
the legislature; they made similar gains in Louisiana, 
and for the time more than held their own in Virginia 
and North Carolina. 

The question of the endorsement of the compromise 
had come up in Virginia and North Carolina in the 
legislative sessions of the winter of 1850-185 1. In 
both legislatures, the Whigs fathered several sets of 
resolutions committing those states to the support of 
the action of Congress. In Virginia, the Democrats, 
fearing that enough members of their own party would 
yield to make possible the success of strong Whig reso- 
lutions," considered it diplomatic to come to the sup- 

B5 Nashville Republican Banner, May 2, 3, June 11, July 4; Memphis 
Eagle, May 19, 20; Washington Republic, June 17, 19, 1851. 

58 Wm. L. Goggin, in accepting the Whig nomination to Congress 
from the fifth district of Virginia, called it the " offspring of patriotism, 
of peace, of harmony, etc." National Intelligencer, April 17, 185 1. 

97 The Lynchburg Republican declared that " every Democrat who 
shall sustain such a batch of resolutions will be accessories [sic] and 
more culpable than the Whigs ". Richmond Whig, Jan. 27, 1851. 



192 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

port of a series sympathizing with South Carolina but 
acquiescing in the compromise with allowance for 
diversity of opinion as to its wisdom, justice, and con- 
stitutionality. 58 The much more significant Whig mi- 
nority in the North Carolina legislature was unable 
to accomplish even as much as this, and after having 
vainly offered numerous resolutions approving of the 
compromise, it had to be content with being able, by 
the aid of Democratic allies, to defeat radical resolu- 
tions which affirmed the constitutional right of seces- 
sion. 58 

Thus far the situation in South Carolina has been 
practically left out of consideration. There the dis- 
union movement raged for a time without an effective 
check. The local Whig party was too insignificant 
in numbers to constitute a real factor when acting 
alone. Its conservative Union tendencies were, how- 
ever, nearly as marked as in the other states. When 
the issue was made of immediate secession of the state 
alone or delay until a cooperative movement of a group 
of southern states could be agreed upon, the loyal Whig 
minority, hoping to stem the tide of disunion, joined 
hands with the Union Democrats in favor of coopera- 
tion. At a time when all the existing Union organs 
had been silenced, Waddy Thompson and Benjamin 
F. Perry, the leaders of the two elements in the west- 
ern part of the state, established the Southern Patriot 
at Greenville, edited by the latter and C. F. Elford. 
This journal persistently pointed out the folly, heresy, 
and madness of secession. 60 William C. Preston, the 

58 Resolutions of March 29, 1851, Acts of Virginia, 1850-1851, 201. 

59 One set claimed the right to punish such citizens as refused to 
follow the state in secession. North State Whig, Nov. 27, 1850. 

60 Greenville Southern Patriot, March 28, June 20, 185 1; Perry, Rem- 
iniscences of Public Men, 257, 310. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 193 

most prominent Whig in South Carolina, who had 
hoped that the death of Calhoun would put an end 
to the disunion agitation in the state, threw his influ- 
ence in favor of the maintenance of the Union. 61 James 
L. Petigru, W. J. Grayson, and Richard Yeadon, editor 
of the Charleston Courier, labored for the same cause 
in the very stronghold of the secessionists. 62 That the 
" cooperationists " were able to elect a majority of 
members to the state convention was due not only to 
their own efforts, but in great part to the unrestrained 
ultraism of the secessionists, in contrast with the " firm- 
ness, wisdom, and patriotism " of the national admin- 
istration in carrying out in good faith the compromise 
measures, 63 and to the success of the Union men in 
Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama in checking the 
disunion movement there. The lukewarm advocates 
of disunion in the Palmetto state became disheartened 
when they saw that such a movement did not enjoy the 
moral support of the majority in any other state. A 
complete reaction set in which removed all danger of 
immediate secession. 

Whigs in the more remote states of Florida, Arkan- 
sas, and Missouri stood for the same ideals that char- 
acterized the party elsewhere in the South. In these 
states, also, they were then working under the disad- 
vantage of being in the minority. But in Florida they 
joined with disaffected Democrats, prevented any 
action hostile to the compromise, and chastised Senator 

61 Ibid., 61; National Intelligencer, July 22, 1851. 

62 Perry, op. cit., 257, 286-288, 310. See Grayson's Union pamphlet 
dated Oct. 17, 1850: Letter to Governor W. B. Seabrook on the Dis- 
solution of the Union. 

63 B. F. Perry to Fillmore, April 22, 1851; J. L. Petigru to Fillmore, 
May 30, 1851, Fillmore MSS. 



194 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Yulee for his ultraism by electing a Union Democrat 
to succeed him. Missouri Whigs, taking advantage of 
the split between the Benton and anti-Benton wings of 
the local Democracy, were able to obtain a majority 
of the congressional delegation, a plurality in the legis- 
lature, and for the first time in their history, to elect 
a Whig United States senator. The latter was H. S. 
Geyer, a strong Union compromise man. 

The ultimate issue involved in the elections in 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and in certain districts 
of the other southern states, was the abstract question 
of the right of secession. Alignment on this question 
revealed the positions of Whig and Democrat as an- 
tagonistic to each other. It was probably with a 
knowledge of this fact that the Southern Rights Demo- 
crats had fallen back upon this issue in order to win 
back the Union men of their party from their fusion 
with the Whigs. Even those Democrats who saw no 
justification for recourse to secession in the existing 
situation, usually defended the doctrine of secession 
as a remedy against oppressive conditions. The Whigs 
throughout the South took issue with the Democrats 
on this point and were nearly united in their denial of 
any such right. They held that when conditions be- 
came intolerably oppressive and all other remedies had 
been tried and had failed, there remained recourse, in 
the last resort, to the inalienable right of revolution. 
This was the burden of the letters and speeches of 
their candidates, of the editorials of the Whig press, 64 

64 See leading editorials in Louisville Journal, Oct. 30; Mobile Adver- 
tiser, Nov. 3, 6, 2j\ Jackson Southron, May 10, 17, 1850; Savannah 
Republican, July 3; North State Whig, Jan. 1; Richmond Whig, March 
17, 1851; Natchez Courier, Oct. 1, 18, 1850; Jan. 31, 1851; Memphis 
Eagle, Feb. 17, Oct. 2, 1851; etc., etc. "Secession and disunion 
have been discussed so much by the press that they have become 
tedious." Richmond Whig, July 16, 1851. 



UNION MO VEMENT, 1850-1851 195 

and of the resolutions of local and state Union conven- 
tions, besides those which the Mississippi constituent 
convention and the Tennessee legislature officially 
adopted under Whig influence. 05 

To prove their point, Whig editors worked out elab- 
orate arguments on federal relations, some of which 
had a smack of the logic which Webster used in his 
famous reply to Hayne. They boldly rejected the 
compact idea and denied that the states were any longer 
sovereign and independent communities. They de- 
clared the secession theory founded on unsound state 
rights arguments; that whatever the status of the 
states before 1787, the people in their desire to form 
" a more perfect Union " had then yielded to the gen- 
eral government many essential attributes of sov- 
ereignty and annulled them to the states; that the 
federal government was now sovereign in its sphere, 
in all matters delegated to it; that the constitution of 
the United States and the laws in pursuance were su- 
preme, overriding, when they conflict, the constitutions 
and laws of the states ; and, finally, that there was no 
basis for even a reserved right of secession because 
these provisions in the constitution would then be ab- 
surd and useless. They bolstered up their statements 
by quoting Madison's opinion in 1788 of the impossi- 
bility of conditional ratification of the constitution; 60 
some even stated that there was nothing in the Virginia 
and Kentucky resolutions which pointed to secession 
as a remedy and printed Madison's letter interpreting 

M Resolutions of Feb. 28, 1852, Laws of Tennessee, 1851-1852, 719-720. 
60 Fayetteville Observer, April 29; Memphis Eagle, May 13; North 
State Whig, May 14, 185 1. 



196 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the Virginia resolutions. 67 A timely letter from Daniel 
Webster, the " Great Expositor " of the constitution, 
in which he denied the right of secession and denounced 
it as revolution, added nothing to the arguments al- 
ready offered. 68 

"Of all the vagaries that ever straggled into the 
brain of a politician ", said the Memphis Eagle, " the 
one of peaceable secession of a State from the Union, 
is the most absurd and least of all calculated to inspire 
confidence in the intelligence or patriotism of him who 
shall harbor for a moment the monstrous proposi- 
tion/ ' w It " is in our view too preposterous to spend 
words about ", declared the Tuscaloosa Monitor. " We 
acknowledge no such right." n " The laws of Con- 
gress now operate directly on individuals without any 
reference to State action ", said the Mobile Advertiser. 
" The constitution was adopted by the people of the 
several States, and is as much their government as are 
the State governments, and nowhere provides that the 
people of any one State may withdraw, secede, or dis- 
solve from it at pleasure." 71 " The Whigs deny that 
the Union of these States is a mere rope of sand ", de- 
clared the Jackson Southron, " they deny that a party of 
malcontents may cause a State to secede from the 
Union and not incur the guilt of treason. They have 
ever held that the federal government is founded on 
its adoption by the people and creates direct relations 
between itself and individuals. No State authority can 

m Jackson Southron, May 30, June 6, 13; Richmond Whig, Nov. 27, 
1850. 

08 Daniel Webster to — , Aug. 1, 1851. National Intelligencer, Aug. 
5; Memphis Eagle, Aug. 16, 1851. 

R0 Memphis Eagle, April 14, 1851. 

70 Hodgson, Cradle of the Confederacy, 297. 

71 Mobile Advertiser, Nov. 3, 1850. 



UNION MO VEMENT, 1850-1851 197 

dissolve the Union." " " The people framed it ; who 
but the people can unf rame it ? " asked the Natchez 
Courier, October 1, 1850. Whig editors asserted that 
the constitution provided for a mutually appointed um- 
pire to decide differences as to the powers of the fed- 
eral government ; they referred to the Supreme Court 
as a tribunal competent to pass upon every possible 
infraction of the constitution, with jurisdiction of 
every possible case in law or equity arising under it. 73 
Their conclusion was that secession was nothing short 
of revolution, inasmuch as it would defeat the very 
purposes for which the Union was formed. 74 

They proceeded to consider the practical operation 
of secession to show that it could not be peaceable. 
They pointed to the complicated relations that would 
follow: for instance, the general government would 
still have public lands in a seceded state and would need 
officers there to administer them. If South Carolina 
could secede and be the sole judge of the time and 
occasion upon which she should exercise the right, then 
every other state had the same right; then Florida and 
Louisiana could secede and rob the United States of 
the millions that had been paid for them, then New 
York could secede and isolate the New England states, 
or Louisiana could secede and close the mouth of the 
Mississippi, or California with the state to be made 

7a Jackson Southron, May 17, 1850. 

73 Louisville Journal, Oct. 30, 1850; Savannah Republican, July 3, 
1851; Jackson Southron, May 10, 1850. 

T * Memphis Eagle, Feb. 17, Oct. 2, 1851; Richmond Whig, Nov. 27, 
1850; St. Louis Intelligencer, Dec. 9, 1850; Jackson Southron, Oct. 11, 
1850; Mobile Advertiser, Nov. 27, 1850; Savannah Republican, Aug. 12, 
1851; Natchez Courier, Oct. 18, 1850, Jan. 31, 1851. 



T98 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

from the territory of Oregon and cut off the United 
States from the Pacific coast. 75 

" The President of the United States and every 
executive officer under him ", declared the North State 
Whig, " are sworn to execute the laws, and if they are 
resisted, it is his solemn duty to quell such resistance, 
and if necessary in order to do it, to use the army and 
navy and militia of the country. War must follow. 
War as the result of secession is as fatal as any of the 
eternal purposes of God." 78 " However disagreeable 
the duties which such a course would impose upon the 
other States and upon the Federal authorities, it will 
be their bounden duty to suppress this, as they would 
any other forcible resistance to the laws and Constitu- 
tion ", was the comment of the St. Louis Intelligencer." 

The danger of admitting the abstract right of seces- 
sion, even though secession itself was conceded to be 
unnecessary at that time, was pointed out by the 
Whigs. 78 They felt that such an admission would 
have the effect of giving countenance and encourage- 
ment to the disunionists in South Carolina and might 
be made the basis for a continued disunion agitation 
in other states as it had been there. " This doctrine of 
Secession in the case of South Carolina ceases to be a 
theory or an abstraction, and presents itself to us as a 
fearful reality " , warned the Alexandria Gazetted 
" The right of secession, as claimed by our opponents ", 
wrote the editor of the Macon Journal and Messenger, 

75 Raleigh Register, in North State Whig, Jan. i, 185 1; cf. id., July 
9, 1851; Richmond Whig, March 17, 1851; etc. 

76 North State Whig, July 16, 1851. 

77 Dec. 9, 1850. 

78 North State Whig, July 2; Richmond Whig, Aug. 11, 12, 1851. 

79 In National Intelligencer, Oct. 22, 185 1. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 199 

" must be either a useless abstraction or a revolutionary 
sentiment leading directly to the destruction of the 
government. In its practical operation it is intended 
to cover the retreat of South Carolina from the 
Union." 80 

The Whigs placed themselves squarely on the 
Georgia platform, however, pledging themselves, in 
case of any further aggression, to resist " even to a 
disruption of every tie which binds the state to the 
Union ". This was the right of revolution, the ulti- 
mate remedy to which the Whigs pointed. 81 They de- 
clared that the right of secession was confounded with 
this inherent and inalienable right of revolution — " a 
right nobody disputes and terrible to tyrants only". 82 
They made it clear, however, that it was not a right 
fixed by constitutional provision or regulation, that it 
was justifiable only in case of extreme oppression, that 
its exercise meant rebellion against the authority of 
the general government and hence bloody civil war. 
The Mobile Register, an organ of Democracy and 
Southern Rights which had counselled acquiescence in 
the compromise measures, wrongly contended that the 
believers in the right of revolution differed from the 
supporters of the right of secession " only as tweedle- 
dum did from tweedledee ". 83 

In order to understand the earnestness of the Whigs 
in their opposition to the doctrine of secession, it is 
necessary to glance at some of the leading contests 
where that doctrine was made the issue in the con- 

80 S. T. Chapman to Cobb, June n, 1851, Toombs, Stephens, and 
Cobb Correspondence. 

81 See Tennessee resolutions of Feb. 28, 1852. 
83 Memphis Eagle, Feb. 17, 1851. 

83 National Intelligencer, Aug. 19, 1851. 



200 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

gressional elections of 185 1. In Virginia, where the 
regular Democratic candidates were believers in the 
right of secession — " abstract secessionists ", as they 
called themselves, or " amateur secessionists ", as they 
were called 84 — interest was centred in the contest be- 
tween -Botts and Caskie in the Richmond district. Dur- 
ing the canvass Caskie repeatedly avowed the right 
of secession. His Whig opponent, who could not ac- 
knowledge the right of a state to secede and who 
denounced peaceable secession as a ridiculous abstract 
humbug, declared with his accustomed fire : " I would 
shoot down every man who dared to resist the fugitive 
slave law, or any other law of the United States" * 
" Keep it before the people ", declared the Richmond 
Whig™ " that the Democratic organs have denounced 
all who opposed the doctrine of secession, as Traitors, 
Consolidationists, Submissionists, and enemies of the 
South." The situation in North Carolina was essen- 
tially similar. " Keep it before the people ", said the 
North State Whig,* 1 " that the Democratic leaders led 
on the movement and discussion in favor of secession 
in the last legislature of North Carolina, at a time when 
South Carolina was threatening to secede from the 
Union. . . . That at this time many of the leaders of 
the Democratic party in North Carolina (besides the 
editors of the Democratic papers) continue to agitate 
the slavery question, and to advocate openly the doc- 
trine of State secession." 

In Alabama, the contests in the Mobile and Mont- 
gomery districts were of especial importance. In the 

"Washington Republic, Oct. 6, 185 1. 

85 Richmond Whig, Sept. 17, 26, Oct. 2, 3, 9, etc. 

86 Oct. 20. 

87 June 18, 1851. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 201 

Montgomery district Yancey met Hilliard on the hus- 
tings in a joint canvass in behalf of the candidates of 
their respective parties. Hilliard left no room for doubt 
as to his position on the doctrine of secession. " The 
Constitution did not give any State the right to secede ", 
he argued, " but every free people have a natural right 
to rise and demand redress when the charter of their 
liberties is invaded. If their just demand be refused, 
they should overthrow the government. Should a 
State attempt to resume the powers it had delegated to 
the Constitution, the Constitution would be violated. 
. . . Should Alabama be called to assist in the reduc- 
tion of South Carolina he, for one, would remember 
he had a double duty to perform — a duty to his State 
and a duty to the Union." " 

In the southern part of the state, the contestants set 
forth elaborate arguments on federal relations. Bragg, 
the Democratic Southern Rights candidate, stated that 
the constitution was a mere power of attorney from 
the states, the latter being sovereign, and followed the 
argument to its logical conclusion. To this, Langdon 
replied, beginning with an exposition of the nature of 
the Union under the present constitution as compared 
with that under the old confederation. The constitu- 
tion, he said, provided that the laws of Congress should 
operate directly upon the people. The people of the 
states voluntarily gave up to the general government 
certain powers and rights in which they agreed that 
it should be supreme, a sovereignty which, he explained, 
was delegated by the people. Accordingly, no state 
could authorize resistance to a law of Congress with- 

88 DuBose, Life of Yancey, 264. Cf. Montgomery Alabama Journal, 
Aug. 4, 1851. 



202 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

out violating the constitution; resistance must come 
from the people, and state authority could not be rec- 
ognized by the general government. If any portion 
of the people of a state should think proper to organize 
an " armed resistance ", the act was declared by the 
constitution to be treason. Should the state government 
interpose its authority to protect its citizens from the 
penalty imposed by the constitution, it would evidently 
violate one of the most important stipulations which 
it made in agreeing to the constitution. Such an act 
would be revolution. On the same principle a state 
could not secede from the Union, without an utter dis- 
regard of all the stipulations of the constitution and a 
violation of the fundamental principle upon which the 
government was founded. 89 

Within the ranks of the Constitutional Union party 
of Georgia there was a marked difference of opinion 
on this point between the Whigs and the Democrats 
who found reasons strong enough to surmount the 
obstacles to cooperation in a common cause. When 
the Southern Rights men there found it wise to mod- 
erate their utterances and finally staked the issue on 
the right of secession, Howell Cobb, the Union candi- 
date for governor, was interrogated for his opinions. 
Cobb had thus far failed to make his position clear 
even to his Union co-workers. As he had in his 
speeches failed to draw a sharp line between the acts of 
private citizens and those of the state " in its sovereign 
capacity ", his position was ambiguous in regard to 
the right of secession and the doctrine of federal 
coercion. Union Whigs naturally interpreted his 
speeches, as the Southern Rights Democrats anxious to 

80 Mobile Advertiser, June 24, July 17, 19, 1851. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 203 

convict Cobb of apostasy charged, as denying the right 
of secession, and he personally encouraged this belief 
in his private correspondence. 00 The Union Democrats, 
however, claimed that Cobb admitted with them the 
abstract right of a state to secede and that the federal 
government had no legal or constitutional authority 
to coerce a sovereign state. 91 Moreover, his personal 
organ at Athens was ranting about the abstract right 
of secession. 

Stephens, his Whig associate in the Union cause, 
whom illness prevented from taking an active part in 
the campaign, suggested some points for him to make : 
" In reference to the calling out of the Militia, etc., 
maintain the right of the President and duty of the 
president to execute the law against all factious oppo- 
sition whether in Mass. or S. C The right of 

Secession treat as an abstract question — it is but a 
right to change the Govt., a right of Revolution — and 
maintain that no just cause for the exercise of such 
right exists. And keep the main point prominent that 
the only question now is whether we should go into 
Revolution or not. S. C. is for it. This is the point 
to keep prominent." 32 

With the pressure of Stephens and the Whigs on the 
one side and of the Democrats on the other, Cobb's 
attempt to give an exposition of his views on the right 
of secession resulted in a letter which filled three col- 

80 Cf. S. F. Chapman to Cobb, June n, 1851, Toombs, Stephens, and 
Cobb Correspondence. 

81 E. P. Harden to Cobb, July 5; S. W. Flournoy to Cobb, July 18, 
185 1, ibid. Cf. Columbus Enquirer, July 15; Milledgeville Southern 
Recorder, July 22. 

83 Stephens to Cobb, June 23, 1851, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Cor- 
respondence. 



204 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

umns in the Milledgeville Southern Recorder. 05 He 
stated very positively that there was no constitutional 
basis justifying the right of a state to secede from the 
Union at its own pleasure, that if this right was con- 
ceded, the existence of the government was placed at 
the disposal of each state. Nevertheless, he provided 
no effective remedy for such secession and could only 
advise a " kind and indulgent policy " to induce the 
state to return to the advantages of the Union, instead 
of coercion " by the strong arm of military power ". 
He then went on to admit the right of a state to secede 
in case of oppression or of gross and palpable violation 
of her constitutional rights, as derived from the re- 
served sovereignty of the states as parties to the com- 
pact which the constitution formed. He admitted the 
" right of the government to enforce the laws on re- 
cusant parties ", but later stated that citizens of a state 
thus resuming her sovereign powers would not com- 
mit treason in conforming to the requirements of their 
state government. In the course of his argument Cobb 
admitted that he did not differ much from many of 
those who granted the abstract right of secession. This 
was clearly a deliberate effort on his part to straddle. 
It would be hard to maintain his consistency in this 
line of reasoning; he oscillated like a pendulum from 
undoubtedly latitudinarian views to distinctly state 
rights principles, for he had a double constituency to 
satisfy, Union men from the old Whig and Democratic 
parties, and he also found it necessary to compete with 
the Southern Rights party for the votes of the moderate 
state rights advocates. 

08 Cobb to J. Rutherford, etc., Aug. 12, 1851, Milledgeville Southern 
Recorder, Aug. 19; also in Savannah Republican, Aug. 22, 1851. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 205 

Despite the grievances of which the South com- 
plained, the Whigs there, though large slave-owners, 
doubted the advantages that a southern confederacy- 
would give to the slave institution. They realized that 
it could only add to the fugitive slave evil and to the 
dangers of slave insurrection, and that it could not 
improve relations between the two sections. " Dis- 
union on the slavery question would make the whole 
North what a few Abolitionists are now — armed prop- 
agandists — reckless of everything human or divine ", 
prophesied the Jackson Southron.™ But it was by no 
means certain that secession would be a peaceful pro- 
ceeding. It was feared that it would lead to civil war 
between slavery and anti-slavery, a contest which the 
institution of slavery could scarcely hope to survive: 
emancipation in this form was worse than the futile 
agitation of the abolitionists or the concerted action of 
the North for slavery restriction. 98 

Certain southern Whigs reached high ground in their 
defence of the Union. Never, said General Sparrow, 
a Louisiana Whig leader, would he consent to become 
a voluntary exile from his country, with its thousand 
holy associations and tens of thousands of blessings, 
and leave it to the enjoyment of brawling fanatics. If 
the evil day came he was resolved to be a soldier of 
the Union and fight under its banner. 89 Colonel Gentry, 
a Tennessee member of Congress, refused to proclaim 
himself an advocate of disunion even in the event of 
the repeal of the fugitive slave law. He indicated his 

84 Jackson Southron, Oct. n, 1850. 

85 Savannah Republican, May 30, 185 1. 

00 jj ew Orleans Bulletin, June 19, 1851. 



206 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

intention of standing by the Union, ready to defend it 
though it meant a bloody civil war. 87 

At this point the question naturally arises : Did the 
southern Whigs have any solution to propose for the 
betterment of conditions in their section? Before un- 
dertaking a direct answer to this, it is necessary to 
consider a mode of redress which occurred to many 
Democrats who were not yet ready for recourse to 
disunion. This was the retaliatory establishment of a 
system of non-intercourse with the anti-slavery states 
by means of a high discriminating tax on the sale of 
goods of northern production or manufacture in the 
southern states, such as was advocated by Governor 
Floyd of Virginia in his message of December, 1850, 83 
and which in a modified form met the approval of 
Berrien, the Georgia Whig senator. It is to be noted, 
however, that the remedy carried with it no larger sig- 
nificance than retaliation upon the North for the wrong 
which it was charged with inflicting upon the South. 
It was only an extension of the old remedy which had 
been discussed ever since the beginning of the anti- 
slavery agitation. 

The Whigs took advantage of this opening to dis- 
cuss the practical side of sectional relations apart from 
the slavery question. They were willing to cut off 
trade with the North, but only as part of their original 
broad policy of encouraging home industry and the 
development of the resources of the South. This policy 
covered the exclusion of foreign as well as northern 
products, a feature which was connected with the gen- 
eral tariff policy of southern Whigs. It must be ad- 

07 Nashville Republican Banner, May 16, 1851. 
98 Richmond Whig, Dec. 7, 1850. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 207 

mitted, however, that, in the absence of any consid- 
erable body of testimony from the Whig planters, we 
have to judge primarily from the language of the party 
press, which was likely to reflect the opinions of an 
urban commercial population and to be the moulder of 
popular opinion rather than its mouthpiece. 

The Whigs pointed out that the way to bring about 
non-intercourse with the North was not by empty 
resolves or by legislative enactments which would ren- 
der trade penal. Even if a rigid enforcement were 
possible, it would but increase southern commercial 
dependence upon Europe. Before the South could gain 
from such a course, she must be in a position to 
supply her own wants, which meant a development of 
home industry and of home markets. We have been 
advocating this policy for years, they said, as the true 
policy of the South, only to have it condemned as too 
protective in character. But they were ready to over- 
look the inconsistency if the advocacy of non-inter- 
course by their political rivals meant a willingness to 
unite with them upon their policy." 

When the slavery question had loomed upon the hori- 
zon of national politics and had revealed the disadvan- 
tage in which the South was placed in a sectional 
struggle of this sort, the southern Whig press had, in- 
deed, begun to account for the economic backwardness 
of the slave states by the absence of a sound system 
of domestic manufactures and had urged that the omis- 
sion be repaired at once. 100 But it met with no consid- 

99 Natchez Courier, Oct. 15; Louisville Journal, Dec. 11; Mobile Ad- 
vertiser, Dec. 22; New Orleans Bulletin, Dec. 30, 1850; Richmond 
Whig, Jan. 2, 185 1. 

. 10 ° Savannah Republican, July 11, 1844; New Orleans Bulletin, Nov. 
24, 1848, Aug. 7, 1849; Aberdeen (Miss.) Independent, May 27, 1848; 
Richmond Whig, May 7, 8, 10, 11, 1849; Nashville Republican Banner, 
Oct. 6, 1849; Jackson Southron, Dec. 21, 28, 1849. 



208 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

eration outside of the party. Now under more favor- 
able auspices, they took up the work with redoubled 
energy. The subject was discussed editorially under 
the heading, " The True Policy of the South ". " The 
true policy of the South ", said the Richmond Repub- 
lican, " is to stop talking and resort to acting. Let the 
puffing of locomotives, the busy murmur of factories, 
and the splashing of steam paddles be our eloquence. 
By that policy we shall be able ere long to assert our 
rights and to prove that right is might." m The editor 
of the Hunts ville Advocate entertained similar senti- 
ments : " Give us factories, machine shops, work shops 
— give us artisans, shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths, 
etc. Let them be encouraged — well supported, pre- 
ferred, and a step, an important step in rendering the 
South independent and prosperous will have been 
made ". 1<B Such was the unanimous opinion of the ma- 
jority of the Whig journals of the South. 108 "The 
encouragement of Home Industry ", said the Nash- 
ville True Whig, " is the ' pillar of cloud by day, and 
the pillar of fire by night ' that must guide the South- 
ern States of this Union through the bewildering and 
hazardous strife for sectional supremacy which ever 
and anon convulses and agitates the country. The 

101 Quoted in Natchez Courier, Aug. 23, 1850. 

102 In Mobile Advertiser, Aug. 27, 1850. 

103 Montgomery Alabama Journal, April 10, 185 1; Natchez Courier, 
Dec. 10, 1850; Jackson Southron, Sept. 20, 1850; Nashville Republican 
Banner, Sept. 2, Oct. 31, 1850, Sept. 26, 1851; Memphis Eagle, Jan. 

16, 1851; Mobile Advertiser, Jan. 30, 1851. The ultra southern Dem- 
ocrats were strongly opposed to manufactures in the South. The Co- 
lumbia (S. C.) State Banner declared, " We regard every factory es- 
tablished at the South as a fatal blow at free trade, and if this is not 
a covert blow to the institution of slavery itself, we shall be agreeably 

disappointed." Louisville Journal, June 6, 1849. See also Savannah 
Republican, May 29, 1849. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 209 

time has come when the Southern people must act for 
the development of their boundless resources, or pay 
the hated penalty of conscious inferiority, and degrada- 
tion in the scale of empire." 10 * The Savannah Republi- 
can had long reiterated its views that agriculture, com- 
merce, and manufactures were the three pillars upon 
which rested the fabric of the social and individual 
prosperity of the South. 105 

The healthy results of an effective system of domestic 
manufacturing were emphasized in these discussions. 
It was shown that the independence of the South must 
begin with industrial independence. By a complete 
development of the opportunities afforded by its great 
staple, it was argued that the South could dictate terms 
not only to the North but to the civilized world ; north- 
ern fanaticism, moreover, would be effectually silenced 
and the South would be left in the undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of her constitutional rights. The time would be 
past when a " chivalry " politician, " clothed in North- 
ern made hat, coat, vest, pants, and boots, would sit 
down in a Northern made chair, at a Northern table, 
take up a Northern pen, and with Northern ink upon 
Northern paper, write a series of inflammatory reso- 
lutions upon the real or supposed encroachments of 
the North upon the South ! And ' chivalry ' news- 
papers, with Northern type, upon Northern presses, 
with Northern ink and upon Northern paper would 
print the said resolutions and circulate them among the 
people!" 106 

The interest of the southern Whigs in the industrial 

104 In National Intelligencer, Sept. 7, 1850. 

103 Nov. 8, 1849. 

ice New Orleans Bulletin, June 4, 1852. 

15 



210 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

development of the South was manifest throughout 
the closing decade of the ante helium period. For a 
time they had hopes of securing some definite encour- 
agement for this idea from the southern commercial 
conventions which met annually after 1850. Gradually, 
however, they became disgusted with the results of 
these meetings. They deprecated the tendency, of 
which they gave evidence from the start, to be con- 
trolled by hot-headed politicians who used them as a 
means of promulgating chimerical resolutions to nour- 
ish the sectional prejudice against the North. As they 
seemed to be productive of no practical results, the 
demand grew among the southern conservatives that 
the idea of such conventions be abandoned entirely. 101 
By 1859 they had degenerated into a farce and the 
scantily attended meeting of that year at Vicksburg 
was bitterly denounced. 103 

The Whigs continued to recommend a diversification 
of the industry of the South as the surest way of se- 
curing for it wealth and independence. 103 They urged 
that at least enough of their raw products be converted 
into manufactured articles to supply the local market, 
while some of them even hoped that the South would 
soon be exporting her products in a finished state and 

1<n Savannah Republican, April 19, 1854; May 19, 1859; Mobile Ad- 
vertiser, Jan. 19, 1855; Alexandria Gazette, Aug. 26, 1856; National 
Intelligencer, Dec. 31, 1856, Aug. 3, 1857, April 8, 1859. 

108 j t was a meeting of " a baker's dozen of peripatetic and wind- 
galled and spavined political economists ". Tuscaloosa Independent 
Monitor, June 4, 1859. " It is as clearly a gathering of disunionists, mil- 
liners, and slave-trade law breakers as if it had met for that pur- 
pose." Vicksburg Whig, May 11, 1859. Cf. Mobile Advertiser, May 
14; Savannah Republican, May 19, 1859. 

109 Savannah Republican, June 10, 1854, Feb. 1, March 1, 1859; Tus- 
caloosa Independent Monitor, April 30, 1859; National Intelligencer, 
March 27, June 5, 1855, April 15, 1857, Sept. 30, 1858, Jan. 27, April 
13, June 17, 1859, Nov. 23, i860. 



UNION MOVEMENT, 1850-1851 211 

competing in the open markets of other nations. Then, 
indeed, would cotton be King. William C. Rives of 
Virginia thought that by developing the resources of 
the South and introducing an industrial population, 
the equilibrium between the two sections might be 
restored and sectional relations be placed upon a sat- 
isfactory basis." In an able speech before the Agri- 
cultural Society of Virginia in October, 1859, Alex- 
ander H. H. Stuart, a prosperous citizen of the Old 
Dominion and a leading conservative, pointed out that 
the low prices of raw products showed that there was 
not the proper relation between production and con- 
sumption. " The most effective remedy that I can 
suggest ", he said, " is, to diversify the occupations of 
our people, to withdraw a large number of them from 
agriculture, and to divert their labor to other pursuits ; 
to build up home manufactures ; to stimulate the devel- 
opment of our mineral resources ; to encourage domes- 
tic commerce, and all mechanic arts, and thereby create 
a demand for the products of our farms at home/' m 

110 Rives to Burwell, Nov. 12, 1854, Burwell MSS. 

111 National Intelligencer, Nov. 5, 1859. 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Problem of Reorganization, 1851-1852. 

Political parties in the South were in a badly dis- 
organized condition when the time arrived for the 
beginning of a new presidential campaign. In most 
of the states of the lower South, party lines were nearly 
obliterated and elsewhere many deficiencies in organi- 
zation were evident. The southern movement and the 
attempt to check it had almost completed the disorgan- 
izing process for which the earlier forms of the slavery 
agitation had laid such firm foundations. Considerable 
had been accomplished toward bringing about the 
much-talked-of sectional unity, but sectionalism or 
southern nationalism, though a steadily increasing 
force, was still largely negative in character and con- 
ditions were as yet unripe for any really constructive 
work. Accordingly, a basis existed within both parties 
for a response to the demand for a reorganization 
which would enable them to marshal their forces for 
the national contest in 1852. 

The Democratic party was the first to act. Even in 
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, the Democrats soon 
discovered that " in preaching disunion under the cloak 
of Southern Rights " they were likely to lose all chances 
of office and became disposed to return to old party 
issues. 1 They began to gather in the stray sheep, to 
inveigle the Union Democrats back into the party fold. 

1 National Intelligencer, April 18; cf. Natchez Courier, Sept. 16; 
Montgomery Alabama Journal, Oct. 28, 30, Nov. I, 185 1. 

212 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 213 

By the first of December, the Democrats of both Mis- 
sissippi and Alabama had issued calls for Democratic 
state conventions to consider the matter of representa- 
tion in the national convention at Baltimore and a pre- 
liminary convention had already been held in Georgia 
to make provision for the summons of a later body to 
appoint delegates. Henceforth their work proceeded 
with comparative smoothness. 

Many Whigs also saw a necessity for such reorgan- 
ization within their own ranks with the glaring de- 
ficiencies that they evidenced. The Richmond Whig 
appealed to party men to remember that even if old 
issues had lost much of their influence, still the prin- 
ciples upon which the Whig party was founded re- 
mained " consecrated in the bosoms of American free- 
men ". 2 Many were sure that with the slavery issue 
excluded from politics party politics would settle down 
in the South on its old basis. 5 

But in Alabama and the adjacent states on the east 
and west the Whigs refused to give up their connection 
with the Union movement even after they saw the 
Democrats gradually abandoning it. They insisted 
that the Union party was stronger than either the 
Democratic or Whig parties and that any attempts to 
split up the Union party for sectional or selfish purposes 
would be a signal for failure. Union men in the 
whole South were urged " to dictate terms ", by a con- 
cert of action, " to the political parties and the political 
demagogues of this section and of the North in the 
National Conventions, and thus preserve the Union, 

2 " An Appeal to the Whigs of Virginia " in Richmond Whig, March 
31. l8 Si- 

8 New Orleans Bulletin, Feb. n; Memphis Eagle, Feb. 21; St. Louis 
Intelligencer, April 10, May 11, 185 1. 



214 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

and the constitutional rights of the South in the 
Union "* In Alabama the call for a Democratic state 
convention was answered by one for a Union conven- 
tion, but this movement came to be participated in by 
fewer and fewer Union Democrats. The resolutions of 
this convention, which met on January 19, recommended 
a national Union convention at Washington in June, to 
which delegates were appointed. 8 

In Mississippi the Whigs were even less willing to 
be restored to their old party affiliation. In their de- 
sire to continue their coalition with the Union Demo- 
crats, many of them applauded the call by the latter 
of a state convention in January to elect delegates to 
the Baltimore Democratic convention; some actually 
participated in the election of delegates." Union 
Whigs were told that they were not necessarily ex- 
pected to give up their old political principles but that 
the purpose was rather to go to Baltimore to use their 
influence in favor of the nomination of sound Union 
candidates. When, however, the state convention met 
at Jackson, it proceeded to express its approval of the 
Democratic principles of 1840, 1844, and 1848, which 
were explained by their supporters to contain no aver- 
ment of creed, doctrine, or constitutional principle 
different from the opinions heretofore proclaimed and 
defended by the Union party of the state. 1 

Voters formerly affiliated with the Whig party of 
Georgia could not see how any good would result from 
a reorganization of that party for the decision of ques- 

4 Montgomery Alabama Journal, Nov. 8; Oct. 29, 1851. 

5 Id., Jan. 22, 1852; National Intelligencer, Jan. 31, 1852. 

6 Jackson Flag of the Union, Nov. 21, 28, Dec. 5, 12, etc., 1851, 
Jan. 9, 1852; Natchez Courier, Nov. 25, Dec. 2, 1851. 

7 Jackson Flag of the Union, Jan. 9, 1852. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 215 

tions then at issue. Toombs, Stephens, and other Whig 
leaders there had committed themselves against such 
a course in the reasons which they assigned when they 
formed the local Constitutional Union organization. 
The Union Whigs still clung to the idea of a national 
Union convention 8 but, under the influence of their 
Democratic co-workers, there was a strong tendency 
in favor of sending a Union delegation to the Balti- 
more Democratic convention. This was recommended 
in the resolutions adopted at a meeting in January of 
the Constitutional Union members of the legislature. 9 
This tendency became more and more evident as it was 
recognized that a national Union organization was no 
longer practicable. 10 Many Union editors, however, 
issued vigorous protests against such a step. 11 Stephens 
continued to urge a Union convention and advised 
against sending delegates to the Democratic convention 
on the ground that it could no more satisfy the principles 
of the Constitutional Union party than could the Whig 
convention. Certain county conventions issued recom- 
mendations in accord with this suggestion. 12 

While the two wings of the Democracy were pre- 
paring for the reestablishment of harmony and co- 
operation, little consideration was had for the Whigs 
who had worked with them in either the Union or the 
Southern Rights party. But the state rights Whigs 

8 Atlanta Republic, Nov. 5, in Washington Republic, Nov. 14, 1851. 
"Savannah Republican, Jan. 23; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, 
Jan. 27, 1852. 

10 Macon Messenger, in Montgomery Alabama Journal, Jan. 27; 
Savannah Republican, Feb. 13; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, April 
13, 1852. 

11 Macon Citizen, and Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, in Montgom- 
ery Alabama Journal, Jan. 28, 30, 1852. 

^National Intelligencer, Feb. 28; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, 
April 20, 1852. 



216 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

who had thrown in their lot with the Democratic fire- 
eaters, while few in number, had gone too far to 
retrace their steps. The general body of the party had 
denounced and repudiated them for their desertion, nor 
were the deserters at all inclined to play the prodigal. 
The inevitable attraction was toward the reorganized 
Democracy; many took the necessary steps toward 
enrolling themselves with their former opponents. 13 

There were many reasons why Whigs in the south- 
ern states should have hesitated to resume their con- 
nection with their old party. These reasons grew 
largely out of the characteristics displayed by the north- 
ern wing of the Whig party, to which repeated warn- 
ings had been issued only to pass unheeded. The 
southern Whig members of Congress were the origi- 
nators and principal signers of the compromise pledge 
or manifesto which was issued in the session following 
that which had passed the congressional adjustment. 14 
The northern W T higs, however, did not attempt to con- 
ceal their animosity to the compromise measures, 
especially to the fugitive slave law. The situation was 
daily becoming more obnoxious to the southern mem- 
bers of the party, many of whom came to believe that 
the two wings had become utterly irreconcilable. 15 
Those who took this view avowed that they would 
rather support a Union Democrat, even from the North, 
than a northern anti-compromise Whig ; 16 it was clear 
that their confidence in the party had gone. Seward 

13 Mobile Advertiser, Jan. 23, Feb. 8, 1852. 

14 The authorship of this pledge is claimed for A. H. Stephens. 
Johnston and Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 285; cf. National Intel- 
ligencer, Jan. 29, 1 85 1. 

15 John B. Lamar to Cobb, April 12, 1852, Toombs, Stephens, and 
Cobb Correspondence. Cf. Mobile Advertiser, April 18, 1852. 

18 Savannah Republican, March 15, 1851. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 217 

and his following were intent upon the repeal of the 
fugitive slave law but southern Whigs agreed with the 
declaration of one of their bolder spirits, that they 
would " take secession, nullification, and hail disunion 
as a blessing rather than yield the fugitive slave law ". 17 
They insisted on the execution of the compromise or 
" the Union party to-day would be the disunion party 
to-morrow 'V 8 

Their leaders, too, were chafing under restraints that 
had gradually become unbearable. Gentry stated be- 
fore the Whig convention in Tennessee that the two 
great political parties, in a national point of view, were 
malformations — " unnatural monsters " ; that the only 
sound platform was the one upon which the Whigs of 
Tennessee and the southern Whigs generally had stood 
from the beginning. 19 Toombs admitted during the 
heated campaign in Georgia that the Whig party had 
succumbed to the anti-slavery sentiment in the North, 
that it had become denationalized and sectionalized, 
and that it could never make another national contest. 20 
In November, on the night of his election to the United 
States Senate by the Union Whig and Democratic 
members of the Georgia legislature, he discussed the 
approaching presidential campaign and declared : " The 
party at the North who shall extend the hand of fellow- 
ship to us of the South, ought to receive, and will re- 

17 See Washington Union, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, 1850. 

18 Savannah Republican, commended by Richmond Republican and 
Norfolk Herald, in Washington Union, July 19, 1851. 

19 Nashville Republican Banner, April 5, 7, 1851. Clingman ex- 
pressed the same sentiment in Congress at this same time. North State 
Whig, April 16, 185 1. 

20 Stovall, Life of Toombs, 89; Washington Union, Aug. 3, 1851. 
Cf. letter to A. H. Chappell, Feb. 15, in Milledgeville Southern Re- 
corder, March 18, 1851. 



218 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

ceive, our entire and most energetic cooperation. . . . 
We have greater reason to expect this support from 
the Democratic party of the North than from the 
Whig"* Again, Brooke, a Union Whig from Mis- 
sissippi, wrote, while candidate for the United States 
Senate : " As to the next presidency ... I do not 
expect to support the nominees of the next Whig 
Convention, because I fear the Convention will not be 
sound on the compromise. My expectation is to give 
my support to the Baltimore Convention ticket [Demo- 
cratic], provided it is not tinctured with secession and 
is pledged to the compromise measures." " 

The Democrats and their newspapers were not slow 
to take advantage of the opportunity of making politi- 
cal capital out of the free-soil character of the north- 
ern Whigs. During the critical period preceding re- 
organization in 185 1 the Washington Union made 
almost daily assaults on the Whig party on that basis, 
calling upon the southern Whigs to notice on the one 
hand the dangerous tendencies of northern Whiggery 
and on the other hand the nationality of the Democratic 
party, and urging them not to close their eyes to the 
teachings of experience. 23 Southern Democrats urged 
upon the consideration of the Whigs in the South the 
necessity of cooperating with the Democrats in the 
national convention ; they claimed that " the only hope 
of the South in the impending struggles for the pres- 
ervation of her rights lies in the success of the national 

21 Savannah Republican, Nov. 14, 185 1. 

22 Walter Brooke to H. C. Adams, Jackson Flag of the Union, 
Feb. 20, 1852. In a letter to the editors of the New Orleans Delta, 
March 2, 1852, he stated that this was the intention of nine-tenths of 
the Whigs of Mississippi, id., March 19, 1852. 

23 Washington Union, July 20, 1851. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 219 

Democratic party "J* It was difficult for the southern 
Whig journals to answer these charges with much 
zeal. The New Orleans Bulletin was one of the few 
that attempted to do so. It could only reply that 
northern Whigs were no worse than northern Demo- 
crats and that the latter gave as many evidences of 
free-soil and abolition proclivities. 25 

No vital issues remained to hold the southern Whigs 
to their old party affiliations. The national bank ques- 
tion had long been dead and buried. 20 The issues of 
internal improvements and the distribution of the pro- 
ceeds of the public land sales were rapidly becoming 
obsolete. As to the tariff, the southern Whigs were 
unwilling to make any effort to secure an increase of 
duties or to disturb the arrangement under the tariff 
of 1846 which, they said, in recognizing the principle 
of protection, had broken down the suicidal doctrine 
of free-trade.* 7 They were determined to give no fur- 
ther protection to the manufacturing and mechanical 
interests of the northern states, so long as they per- 
mitted southern institutions to be assailed and southern 



34 Nashville Daily American, Jan. 16, in Washington Union, Feb. 6, 
1852; see Macon Journal and Messenger, Jan. 14, in id., Jan. 21, 1852. 

25 New Orleans Bulletin, Jan. 13, 21, March 14, August 4, 5, etc., 
1851. It soon became convinced itself of the utter incompatibility be- 
tween the northern and southern wings of the Whig party and hardly 
expected to see cooperation between them. Dec. 8, 1851. 

28 Outlaw of North Carolina declared June 10, 1852: " It is true that 
some valiant gentleman upon the other side of the House, occasionally 
exhumes from its almost forgotten grave, the dead carcass of the 
United States Bank, and drags it here across the stage to frighten us 
out of our propriety. He who is alarmed must have very weak nerves, 
for, so far as I know, no man of any party proposes to establish a 
United States Bank. I declare, for one, I should not hesitate to vote 
against it." See his analysis of the other issues, Cong. Globe, 32 
Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 676. 

27 Ibid.; Montgomery Alabama Journal, Nov. 29, 1851. 



220 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

rights violated. 28 Many southern Whigs began to claim 
that the South never had had any immediate interest in 
the establishment of the protective system, that they, 
nevertheless, had advocated protection with Clay on 
the grounds of national independence and the general 
welfare simply to occupy a national position in com- 
pany with their northern allies. 20 

The Richmond Whig had urged, in the early months 
of 1850, 30 a revision of the tariff of 1846 in the direction 
of greater protection and pointed to the critical con- 
dition of American manufactories; by December of 
that year, however, it admitted that the tariff question 
had become implicated in the slavery question. The 
Whig's analysis shows considerable insight into the 
situation : 31 

Now, whilst the Southern Whigs are undoubtedly in favor 
of any provision which will maintain existing manufactures in 
the Southern States, there is not the same disposition to pro- 
tect the general manufacturing interests of the Union until 
agitation shall be arrested. . . . Abolitionism has discouraged 
that Southern advocacy which has always sustained the Tariff. 
. . . The continued agitation of slavery has impaired the sup- 
port of the Tariff in the South. Slavery is one institution, 
manufactures another — and assault upon the one must provoke 
retaliation. 

A short time later, 32 the same paper pointed out the 

28 Savannah Republican, Nov. 20, 1851. It was this, spirit that 
caused several Whigs in the North Carolina legislature to assist the Demo- 
crats in passing anti-tariff resolutions to that effect. Laws of North 
Carolina, 1850-1851, 512-513; North State Whig, Jan. 8, 1851. 

29 Chambers (Ala.) Tribune, in Washington Union, Sept. 12, 1851; 
Mobile Advertiser, Jan. 26, 1851; Richmond Whig, Dec. 11, 1850. 

30 May 8, 24. 

81 Dec. 11, 1850. 

32 Dec. 27, 1850. Meantime it advocated the encouragement of the 
domestic manufactures of Virginia, if need be, by state protective leg- 
islation. Dec. 14, 16, 18, 1850; cf. Feb. 18, 1851. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 221 

necessity of a protective tariff to the North but said 
that the compromise must be maintained and that rea- 
sonable assurances of this must be given by the North 
as a condition to protection. 

The tendency of the times is also apparent from 
the Whig votes for the North Carolina anti-tariff reso- 
lutions and from the approval of them expressed by 
the Mobile Advertiser of January 26 during the ab- 
sence of the editor, C. C. Langdon, at Washington. 
Langdon tried to counteract the effect of this state- 
ment by explaining that he and many other southern 
tariff men advocated protection not as a boon to the 
North, as had been stated, but because they thought 
that it would lead to the establishment of more cotton 
factories in the country and hence to a greater con- 
sumption of cotton and of the other staples of the 
South, besides allowing the southern states to share in 
the general advantages that would accrue to the na- 
tion. 33 Sincere protectionist sentiment, however, had 
doubtless come to be considerably limited in the South 
and, outside of the border states, it was largely con- 
fined to the Whigs of Louisiana. 34 

Whig issues were dead, the Whig point of view alone 
remained to prevent party activity from degenerating 
into a struggle for ofhce — for the spoils, now that 
it had ceased to be a struggle for measures. 35 But Whigs 
who still prided themselves, as some southern Whigs 
did, on having taken their first lessons in politics 

33 Mobile Advertiser, Feb. n, 1851. 

3 * A tariff resolution formed the third plank of the platform of the 
Louisiana Whig convention of March 16, 1852, which, besides that of 
the Missouri Whigs, was the only mention made of the tariff question 
by the state conventions in the South preparatory to the Whig national 
convention. New Orleans Bulletin, March 19, 1852. 

35 Baltimore Clipper, in New Orleans Bulletin, Dec. 2, 1851. 



222 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

" under Gov. Troup when he unfurled the banner of 
State Rights against federal usurpation' , , M could 
hardly be held by the tie of Whig latitudinarianism. 
Such men did not stop with a criticism of the northern 
wing and of the party machinery with its conventions 
that, looking to the party rather than the general wel- 
fare, almost invariably nominated candidates upon the 
ground of availability and drew up platforms which 
contained empty platitudes and which avoided the ques- 
tions most at issue. They began to see that the Whig 
party was a party of latitudinarians, who had no proper 
respect for state rights or the rights of their section. 
For the rights and defence of the injured South, the 
Augusta Republic stated that it and other southern 
rights Whigs were willing to ask the Democrats " to 
bury the hatchet of past differences — to oppose all high 
tariffs, all vast schemes of internal improvements by 
the Federal government, all hateful tendencies to des- 
potic consolidation ", 37 

Many southern Whigs formerly of good standing 
in their party, some of whom claimed to have been 
sincerely enthusiastic about Whig principles and Whig 
measures, came on due reflection to see the advantages 
of the Democratic organization. The Chambers, Ala- 
bama, Tribune gave a keen analysis of the situation 
from this point of view: 

The Whig party of the South, as a party, is as dead as a 
mackerel. By the presidential election, it will be difficult to 
find individual specimens of that species of the great family 
of politicians. 

The reason of this extinction is obvious. The general rule 
of Whig affinity North is abolitionward; the exceptions are 

36 Montgomery Alabama Journal, Aug. 29, 1850. 

37 In Savannah Republican, April 24, 185 1. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 223 

barely sufficient to establish the rule. We do not know why 
this is so, but the fact is as apparent as the face of the heavens. 
Southern men, therefore, cannot longer act with the national 
Whig party. We in the South never had any immediate 
interest in the establishment of the protective system; but 
acting in good faith with our northern allies, the southern Whig 
party tied itself to an unpopular issue, and fell with it. . . . 
The Union Whigs of several of the southern States are making 
ready to enlist for the support of the national Democratic 
nomination. 38 

The tendency, then, was for Union Whigs as well 
as the limited group of state rights Whigs to transfer 
their allegiance to the Democratic party. There was, 
moreover, a marked tendency among the younger men 
to desert the Whig party, which, with the failure of 
the party to secure recruits from the incoming genera- 
tion, was a serious omen of future disaster. 89 But many 
disaffected Whigs were unwilling to seek admission 
into the Democratic ranks and preferred to express 
their discontent rather in political disinterestedness and 
lethargy. 

The leading candidates for the Whig nomination 
for the presidency were Fillmore, Webster, and Scott. 

33 Washington Union, Sept. 12, 1851. John Milledge, a Georgia old- 
line Whig, was prepared to do all he could in the Union state convention 
to deliver his associates over to the Democratic party. He suggested the 
adoption of a resolution " declaring that all the old issues contended 
for by the Whig party had been finally disposed of, and that whereas it 
was not the interest of the South again to enter into a contest with the 
other party for a tariff for protection, or a U. S. Bank, etc., but that 
as there was union of sentiment and harmony of feeling among us all 
on these points under the present policy and measures of the Gov., be 
it resolved that no sacrifice of principle or honor would attach to those 
who heretofore acted with that party, by joining the Democratic party 
which from evidences before us were our most reliable friends for the 
protection of our rights and the salvation of our Union ". Milledge to 
Cobb, April 17, 1852. Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. 

39 P. Clayton to Cobb, May 5, 1851, ibid. See also Claiborne, Seventy- 
five Years in Old Virginia, 132. 



224 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The former had by his firmness and fairness in the 
executive office, especially in the execution of the fugi- 
tive slave law, ingratiated himself in the hearts of the 
Whigs in the southern states. They almost unani- 
mously believed that there was a moral obligation 
resting upon them to support him for reelection and, 
as an expression of their confidence and approbation, 
they began at an early date to urge his nomination as 
their first choice. They inclined favorably, too, toward 
the presidential aspirations of the Massachusetts states- 
man, whose course since his seventh of March speech 
had given him a new and well-deserved popularity in 
the South. Men like Stephens and Toombs were able 
to appreciate Webster's remarkable abilities as a states- 
man as well as the sacrifice he had made in his breach 
with the past: as the result of personal and intimate 
association with him at Washington, they felt the 
honesty and sincerity of his services in behalf of the 
compromise and the Union. The movement for Scott, 
on the other hand, had originated entirely in the North. 
Whigs in Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio 
declared him to be their choice in the same breath in 
which they expressed their strong anti-slavery and anti- 
compromise convictions. 

Journals in the South soon began to talk about a 
coalition between the Free-soil leaders and the friends 
of General Scott. 40 When it was learned that Seward 
had declared that he would take Scott without asking 
any questions, the necessity was urged by southern 
Whigs of securing from the latter pledges satisfactory 
to the South before his name could even be considered 

i0 Nashville Union, Feb. n, 185 1. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 225 

by them. 41 This discussion was precipitated by Scott's 
nomination by the Whigs of Pennsylvania in a con- 
vention which, while adopting a resolution for the ob- 
servance of the compromise, firmly voted down an 
amendment which recognized the finality of the fugitive 
slave law. In this convention, too, Governor Johnston, 
the Whig nominee for reelection, stated that the com- 
promise was just as much open to discussion and mod- 
ification as the tariff act of 1846. Protests were at once 
raised by the southern Whigs and the distrust was 
much more widely felt than expressed. The Nashville 
Republican Banner and the St. Louis Intelligencer made 
haste to repudiate the position of the Whig party in 
Pennyslvania, and the latter issued a further warning 
by pointing to the non-committal position of Scott on 
the fugitive slave law in connection with the solicitude 
of abolition and free-soil Whigs in his behalf. 42 But the 
Savannah Republican was still more outspoken in its 
opinions. " Candour requires us to say to our North- 
ern brethren once for all ", it declared, " that they may 
nominate Gen. Scott (and possibly elect him, though we 
doubt it,) but that no party at the South can take part 
either in his nomination or election. Not one Southern 
State would cast its vote for him, except perhaps Ken- 
tucky, and we hope that she would not .... The fact 
that he comes forward under the auspices of Mr. Sew- 
ard of New York and Gov. Johnston of Pennsylvania 
— in neither of whom the South has one particle of 

41 New Orleans Picayune, in Mobile Advertiser, Feb. 22, 1851. Cf. 
Washington Union, June 4; Missouri Republican, May 2; St. Louis 
Intelligencer, May 3, 1851. 

. a Nashville Republican Banner, July 4; St. Louis Intelligencer, July 
2, 3, 1851. The Intelligencer's attitude came to be endorsed by the 
entire Whig press of Missouri, id., Aug. 23, 1851. 
16 



^_ 



226 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

confidence — is enough to damn him to utter defeat in 
this section of the Confederacy." ** 

Even those southern Whigs who were satisfied that 
Scott himself was sound upon the slavery issue and an 
unequivocal supporter of the compromise, recognized 
the extent of the distrust among the conservatives, who 
were much more fearful of northern sectional move- 
ments than they were of fighting secession in their 
midst. 44 The demand was definitely made that, in order 
to purge himself of the infection and suspicion attached 
to his companionship with free-soil Whigs and to show 
his willingness to cut loose from such associates, " he 
must say he is in favor of the fugitive slave law ". 4o 

Events in the North were carefully followed by the 
southern Whig journals and their recommendations 
shaped accordingly. They found the proceedings of 
the Ohio Whig convention, which also nominated Scott, 
even less to their liking than those of the Pennsylvania 
body. 40 They anticipated with a sense of satisfaction 
the defeat of Governor Johnston, the Whig guber- 
natorial candidate in Pennsylvania, who was generally 
condemned by them for his hostility to the fugitive 
slave law and for his action in the fugitive slave case 
known as the Christiana riot, which occurred in Penn- 
sylvania during the canvass; they rejoiced when they 
saw his defeat an accomplished fact. 47 When the two 

43 Savannah Republican, July 1, 1^51. 

44 Nashville Republican Banner, Sept. 24; cf. Memphis Eagle, July 
17, 1851. 

45 New Orleans Bulletin, July 14; cf. St. -Louis Intelligencer, July 
3, 1851. 

40 St. Louis Intelligencer, July 12, 1851. 

47 New Orleans Bulletin, Sept. 24, Oct. 25; Montgomery Alabama 
Journal, Oct. 29; St. Louis Intelligencer, Oct. 12; Savannah Republi- 
can, Oct. 22, 31; etc. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 227 

factions of the New York Whigs, the Fillmore and 
Webster following and the Seward group, formed a 
temporary coalition upon the so-called Albany plat- 
form, Whig papers in the South boldly criticized the 
platform as too restricted and as lacking in soundness. 
"It forms no basis ", said the Baltimore American, 
" upon which the men that made it can look their south- 
ern brethren honestly in the face/' 48 The situation 
aroused Clay to write a letter denouncing the action 
of the New York Whigs as too equivocal in regard to 
the acceptance of the compromise. 49 Many southern 
Whigs came to believe that the respective positions of 
the two sections of the party were so essentially incom- 
patible as to make harmonious cooperation and con- 
sultation an impossibility. 

When southern Whigs began seriously to consider 
the question of a national nominating convention, they 
began to formulate the demands which they intended 
to make of it. They insisted that to secure southern 
support the nominee must be a national Whig, a Union 
man, and "to be such, he must avow himself boldly 
and openly, as have FILLMORE and WEBSTER, the 
friend and staunch advocate of the compromise as a 
final settlement of all the questions connected with 
slavery." 50 "This ", said the Memphis Eagle, " is a sine 
qua non with every man in the South who is in favor 
of remaining in the Union at all." a " The present is 
a crisis in the history of the Whig party ", said the St. 

48 Washington Union, Aug. 14; cf. id., Aug. 7, 13; Memphis Eagle, 
Sept. 13, 25; Savannah Republican, Oct. 31. 

49 Letter in full in Washington Union, Oct. 23. 

. 5° New Orleans Bulletin, July 11; cf. id., Nov. 18, 28; Savannah Re- 
publican, Oct. 31; Memphis Eagle, Nov. 11, 1851. 
51 Oct. 21. 



228 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Louis Intelligencer. "If the Northern Whigs attempt 
to force upon us a candidate with Free-soil tendencies, 
the inevitable result will be that the Whigs of the South 
and West will nominate a candidate of their own, who 
is known to be sound on the subject, and will adhere 
to him through evil and through good report, pre- 
ferring an honorable defeat to an inglorious victory." 5 * 
Governor Brown of Florida formulated a definite plan 
of action. He and many Whigs of that state favored 
a national Union convention, but if this proved impos- 
sible, he thought that all the southern states ought to 
send delegates to the Whig convention, but under 
instructions to require, before proceeding to the nom- 
inations, the adoption of resolutions which would per- 
mit the consideration of only those candidates who 
supported the compromise measures, especially the 
fugitive slave law, and who were against its repeal or 
essential modification. Without such an explicit dec- 
laration by the convention, the southern delegates were 
to withdraw. 53 This became, indeed, the platform of 
the southern Whigs. 

It must be remembered, however, that the control 
of the party rested with the northern wing, and that, 
although in the North there was the division into free- 
soil Whigs and " silver-grey " or national Whigs, the 
former without doubt constituted a considerable ma- 
jority. The nominee for the presidency was fairly cer- 
tain to be the favorite candidate of the North, in this 
case General Scott, the " available candidate ". The 
position upon which the anti-slavery element insisted 
was that the Whigs of each section should be allowed 

52 Washington Republic, July 23, 1851. 

ss Governor Thos. Brown to W. G. M. Davis, Sept. 4, 185 1, Washing- 
ton Republic, Oct. 22, 1851. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 229 

to hold their own views on slavery; that cooperation 
in the national convention should depend solely upon 
the support of Whig principles and measures : " You 
may ' compromise ' a tariff question, or a land or a 
money question. But you cannot ' compromise ' a 
question of human freedom." M It was in accordance 
with their desires and in order to retain their support 
that General Scott had refrained from publishing his 
views on slavery and the compromise. 55 

But the southern Whigs were insistent that Scott 
should make an open, unqualified, and unequivocal 
announcement of his position. It was not enough that 
he had favored the passage of the compromise measures 
from the time of their introduction; it was not enough 
that he was known to have taken an active part in the 
great Union meeting in New York at Castle Garden 
in May, 1850; it was not even enough that he had, 
after President Taylor's death, been temporarily placed 
by Fillmore at the head of the war department and in 
that position had exerted a powerful influence in favor 
of the compromise measures. Some safeguard for the 
future was expected and demanded. 

This situation was discussed by the southern mem- 
bers of Congress. Cabell, a Florida Union Whig, who, 
like Stephens, Toombs, Gentry, Brooke, Marshall, and 
others, had lost faith in the Whig party with its sec- 
tional divisions and was preparing to look about for a 
new and more favorable alignment, began the discus- 
sion with a speech on the third of February in which 
he considered the position of the Union and Whig 

E * New York Tribune, Washington Correspondence, April 7, in Wash- 
ington Union, April 14, 1852. 

03 Cf. Winfield Scott to — , March 26, 185 1, Washington Republic, Oct. 
1, 1851. 



230 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

parties. Declaring Fillmore to be his choice for the 
presidency, he admitted that Scott's past attitude 
toward the compromise had been favorable to southern 
support. More recent developments, however, had 
rendered it essential that Scott first, if it was not 
already too late to extricate himself from his false 
position, place himself fully and clearly on record. 
" In his present position, if nominated by the Whig 
party for the presidency, I do not believe that in my 
State he would receive fifty votes ; and I am quite sure 
that he could not get the electoral vote of one Southern 
State." M A month later Humphrey Marshall wrote 
privately to the editor of the Buffalo Commercial Ad- 
vertiser regarding Scott : "In his present position he 
cannot obtain the vote of Kentucky any more than he 
can command the powers of heaven." " On the last of 
March, Williams of Tennessee made substantially the 
same announcement before the House in regard to the 
attitude of his own state toward Scott. 58 Stephens and 
Toombs, like the majority of Georgia Whigs, or Union 
men as they preferred to call themselves, hesitated 
whether or not to accept any pledges at this late date. 59 
They feared after their experience with Taylor that if 
Seward controlled Scott now, there could be no reason 

56 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 451-457. On March 20, 1852, Cabell 
wrote to a New York cotton Whig declaring that with the nomination 
of a sectional candidate over Fillmore by the Whig convention, " the 
Whig party would and should, as a party, cease in the Southern 
States ". Albany State Register, in Washington Republic, April 3, 
1852. 

"April 7, 1852. 

08 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 940; Appendix, 371-373; New York 
Herald, April 1, 1852. 

59 Cf. Milledgeville Southern Recorder, May 11, 1852. Toombs was 
preparing to support the nominee of the Baltimore Democratic Conven- 
tion. Toombs to Cobb, May 27, 1852, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb 
Correspondence. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 231 

to hope for better things after his election. More- 
over, a private letter of Henry Clay had been published 
which revealed his preference for Fillmore as " tried 
and found true, faithful, honest, and conscientious ". 
This was used to discredit Scott's candidature in the 
South. 60 

Nevertheless, despite all the influences at work, Scott 
seems to have steadily acquired new strength in the 
southern states. During January and February, 1852, 
a number of Whig politicians from the South prepared 
to give him their support in the presidential contest. 61 
His friends among the southern members of Congress 
came to include a loyal little following made up of 
Stanly and Senator Mangum of North Carolina, Sen- 
ators Bell and Jones of Tennessee, and Ward of Ken- 
tucky, 62 while others like Cullom of Kentucky held the 
way clear for the support of Scott, whom they pro- 
fessed to believe unquestionably sound. 63 Stanly wrote 
a letter intended to reconcile southern Whigs to Scott's 
nomination, representing him as a strong supporter of 
the compromise measures at all times. He further 
stated that the fact that Whig anti-slavery men declared 
their purpose to support Scott constituted no objection 
to his receiving the support of the southern Whigs. 64 
On April 7 Ward announced to the House his support 

60 Clay, Private Correspondence, 628. Also in Washington Repub- 
lic, March 18; Washington Union, March 19. 

61 Charleston Courier, Washington Correspondence, in Montgomery 
Alabama Journal, Feb. 3, 1852. A caucus of Whig members of the 
Delaware legislature toward the last of February passed resolutions in 
favor of his nomination. National Intelligencer, Feb. 28, 1852. 

62 Cf. H. Greeley to Weed, April 18, 1852. Memoir of Thurlow Weed, 
217. 

63 See his speech on May 17, Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 1382- 
1383. 

84 Washington Union, April 10, 1852. 



m 



232 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

of Scott, contending that his nomination meant the best 
hope of Whig success. 65 Mangum boldly declared Scott 
his first choice before the Senate on April 18; although 
he stated that his candidate could present " as clean 
a bill of political health " as could Fillmore, Webster, 
or Clay, 66 he was rebuked for his action by a consider- 
able portion of the Whig press of his own state and 
denounced by many of his party in the lower South. 67 
The Richmond Whig had already announced its entire 
confidence in Scott without pledges and could see noth- 
ing discreditable to him if he received the votes of f ree- 
soilers or of any one else. 68 The editors of the Louis- 
ville Journal and of the Nashville Republican Banner 
returned home from a visit to Washington prepared to 
support Scott. 69 The certainty of his nomination was 
beginning to be realized in the South. Fillmore was 
the first choice of the Whigs there, Webster undoubt- 
edly the second, but they had to decide on a policy if 
Scott was nominated. Many accordingly concluded not 
to burn their bridges behind them, but, conceding the 
latter's soundness, prepared to support him if a better 
compromise man was not named. 70 

It is important to notice the general position of the 
southern Whigs in Congress at this time in connection 
with their attitude towards Scott's candidacy. Men 
like Stephens, Toombs, Cabell, Brooke, and Clingman 

65 New York Herald, April 8, 1852. 

66 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 1076-1080. 

6T See D. Heartt to Mangum, March 31, 1852, Mangum MSS. 

68 March 18, 1852. J. M. Botts became a firm supporter of Scott 
in the Richmond district. 

69 Washington Union, May 5, 1852. 

70 Nashville Republican Banner, March 9, n; Montgomery Alabama 
Journal, March 26, April 9; New Orleans Bulletin, May 25; Memphis 
Eagle and Enquirer, May 19; etc., 1852. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 233 

who had abandoned the party tie in the local contests 
over the compromise measures, with such men as Mar- 
shall of Kentucky, Gentry and Williams of Tennessee, 
Moore and Landry of Louisiana, Outlaw of North 
Carolina, and Strother of Virginia — indeed, a con- 
siderable majority of the southern Whig members — 
had become " Southern Whigs " in a special sense, de- 
voted more to the interests of their section than to those 
of the national party. By testimonials of devotion to 
the old party principles they showed that they had 
strayed but little from orthodox whiggery, but they 
made it equally clear that they had prepared their 
minds for a breach with northern anti-slavery whig- 
gery. They were fully conscious that the slavery 
agitation might be renewed at any time. They did not 
know how soon some bold step by their political associ- 
ates in the North would provoke them to break off all 
cooperation ; yet they felt that the southern section of 
the party could endure no further insult from the north- 
ern wing. Several southern Whigs had come to Wash- 
ington expecting to find greater soundness among the 
northern Democrats than among the northern men 
of the Whig party and prepared in that event to act 
with the former. These southern Whigs were always 
prepared to fall back upon a Union movement 71 which 

71 Cabell outlined this attitude: " I am a member of the Southern 
Whig party. I believe it to be the constitutional party — the true con- 
servative party of the country, opposed to all mere abstractions of the 
South, and to Sewardism, Greeleyism, Van Burenism, and all the other 
isms of the North. I feel proud of belonging to that party, because, 
with few exceptions, the members of it are Union men, and as Union 
men we might, without surrendering any of our principles, act in 
harmony with the Union Constitutional party. It would be in accord- 
ance with the conservative principles of our party to abandon party 
names and party organizations to act with any man or set of men who, 
under a new organization, would contribute to the Constitution and the 
Union." Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 451, 452. 



234 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

they had come to regard as a southern movement on 
the true basis, devoid of the sectionalism and of the 
ultraism that had characterized all previous southern 
movements and that had made their defeat inevitable/ 2 
On the twenty-seventh of April, Stephens stated his 
views on the requirements of such a new organization. 
"If the people of this country ", he declared, " want 
a national party to govern it upon national principles, 
they must have a party based upon sound American 
constitutional principles — a party which shall drive 
from its ranks every man tainted with Abolition or 
' higher law ' heresies — a party formed upon those 
controlling issues which present the paramount ques- 
tion of the day." 7S 

Even the moderates of this group, represented by 
Marshall and Gentry, were intent on demanding an 
understanding with the northern Whigs on the basis of 
the " finality policy ". They rejoiced when the Whig 
caucus at the opening of Congress, though scantily 
attended, passed a resolution recognizing the finality 
of the compromise with but few dissenting votes. 74 
They expressed their satisfaction that the Whig party 
had placed itself upon the same platform upon which 
southern Whigs stood. This action seemed to most 
of them a basis for further cooperation within the 
party. 75 But in April, a strategic move on the part of 

72 Georgia Journal and Messenger, April 28, 1852, in Pendleton, 
A. H. Stephens, 118. 

73 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 460. 

74 Washington Republic, Dec. 3; National Intelligencer, Dec. 3, 1851; 
Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 6-7. 

75 See ibid., 9. Stephens wrote to his brother, Dec. 10, "The Whig 
party, so-called, put itself right in caucus. That was a great point. 
But there will be no National Whig Convention. And I trust there 
will be no Whig organization kept up. The true men must get together 
and act together without any regard to past party names." Toombs, 
Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 235 

the Democrats again summoned the southern Whigs 
to action. Two Georgia Democrats, Jackson and Hill- 
yer, who aimed at making a Democratic demonstration 
which would prove the soundness of northern Demo- 
crats, 76 introduced resolutions affirming the finality of 
the compromise measures. As was intended, they thus 
called the attention of the Union Whigs of the South 
to the relative unsoundness of their own political asso- 
ciates in the North. For the votes on the resolutions 
revealed two-thirds of the northern Whigs opposed to 
such a declaration, while two-thirds of the northern 
Democrats voted in the affirmative." The Whig rep- 
resentatives of the South saw the force of the argu- 
ment. " That vote left to me, and to other Whigs 
from the slaveholding States ", said Humphrey Mar- 
shall somewhat later, " no evidence whatever that a 
faithful adherence to the compromise, and a determina- 
tion to proclaim the principles and the laws thereby 
established as a final settlement of sectional and dis- 
turbing elements, would henceforth be considered as 
part ' of the Whig creed \ That vote exhibited nearly 
the whole Southern Whig party in one direction, and 
nearly the whole Northern Whig party in another line. 
In other words it indicated a rupture, or the necessity 
of ' agreeing to disagree ', on an important question 
affecting the welfare, possibly the very existence of 
the Union." T8 

This impression was reenforced not only by the de- 
cided stand of Greeley's New York Tribune and of the 
other anti-slavery Whig journals, that there could be 

78 Hopkins Holsey to Cobb, Feb. 6, 1852, ibid. 
" Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 980, 982, 983. 
78 Ibid., Appendix, 634. 



236 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

and need be no agreement between the two wings on 
the slavery question, that the best arrangement was to 
" agree to disagree ", 79 but also by the growing strength 
of Scott in the North. The situation was carefully 
canvassed by the southern Whigs. They remained firm 
in their insistence on a compromise basis for coopera- 
tion between the sectional wings of the party. They 
saw that it was again necessary to put the party to the 
test at the very first opportunity which offered itself. 
Hence they decided to raise the issue in the congres- 
sional caucus which had just been called " to consider 
matters of importance to the Whig party ", 80 and which 
was therefore favorable to the execution of their pur- 
poses, though obviously intended to be a meeting to 
decide upon the time and place for the national con- 
vention. 

In the first meeting on April 9, Humphrey Marshall, 
" the leader of the forlorn hope of the South ", intro- 
duced the compromise resolution that had passed the 
Whig caucus of the previous December. Gentry, Out- 
law, Walsh, Moore, and Cabell supported it, stating 
that they wanted a definite approval of the fugitive 
slave law, which but carried out an express provision 
of the Constitution, that the Whigs of the South would 
never consent to act in brotherhood with traitors who 
desired to nullify certain provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, that the principle of Marshall's resolution was 
the only basis on which the Whig members of Con- 
gress could cooperate since it was essential to a national 
Whig organization. Northern Whigs replied, but a 

79 New York Tribune, March 15, April 9, 1852. 

80 National Intelligencer, April 9, 1852. Outlaw admitted on June 
10 that the southern Whigs had agreed in advance to offer a compromise 
resolution. Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 677. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 237 

resolution to adjourn carried the matter over to the 
twentieth of the month. Before adjournment, how- 
ever, Mangum, who had presided over the meeting, 
informed the body that if he was chairman of the next 
session, he would rule Marshall's resolution out of 
order; Marshall indicated his willingness to make a 
test question out of the point of order. 81 

The eleven days which intervened between the ses- 
sions of the caucus did not bring any change in the 
position of the southern Whigs. They were egged on 
to greater determination in adhering to the course that 
they had laid out by the arguments of the national 
Whigs of the North, led by Representative Brooks of 
New York, who, as the spokesman in Congress of the 
latter, justly argued that northern men could never 
fight for the constitutional rights of the South on north- 
ern ground if southern men abandoned them in the 
struggle. 82 At the adjourned meeting the chairman 
ruled Marshall's proposition out of order; his ruling 
was sustained by a vote of 46 to 21. 83 Marshall almost 
immediately declared that the caucus was no place for 
a Whig and withdrew. Gentry then stated that he 
would make one more effort to save the unity of the 
party; he offered a resolution which declared that in 
fixing the time and place for the national convention, 
the Whigs did not commit themselves to support the 

81 Proceedings of caucus in New York Herald, April 10, 1852. The 
Washington correspondence of the Courier and Enquirer, Express, and 
Journal of Commerce giving reports of the caucus is in the Herald 
of April 13. The official report for both sessions of the caucus is in 
National Intelligencer, May 8, 1852. 

82 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 11 57; cf. New York Express — 
of which Brooks was editor — April 20; New York Herald, April n, 
13, 1852. 

83 See official report in National Intelligencer, May 8, 1852. 



238 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

nominees of the convention unless such candidates 
should be publicly and unequivocally pledged to the 
finality of the compromise measures. This was also 
ruled out of order and Mangum was sustained in his 
decision. Then followed a long debate. The southern 
Whigs refused to be satisfied with the announcement 
of the chair that, while Gentry's resolution could not 
be entertained as an amendment, it might later, after 
the disposal of the regular business, be entertained as 
an independent proposition by the meeting organized 
as a debating society. They feared that after the real 
work of the caucus was performed, if it did not ad- 
journ, the northern members would either retire or be 
" present with a mental reservation " ; that the history 
of the December caucus would be repeated with per- 
haps a compromise resolution which would not com- 
mit the northern members. M Cullom of Tennessee 
promised to offer such a resolution at that time and 
urged Gentry to remain in the caucus. But one by one 
the southerners made personal explanations, declaring 
that the rejection of the compromise resolutions was 
the same as thrusting them out, and left the meeting. 
At length only thirteen southern Whigs remained ; some 
of them declared that they strongly sympathized with 
the seceders and that they stayed only because they 
hoped the Whig convention would endorse the com- 
promise. When the excitement subsided somewhat, 
this rump caucus selected Baltimore as the place for the 
holding of the national convention on June 16, and the 
debate was renewed to continue until nearly mid- 
night. 85 

84 See Outlaw's speech on June 10, Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 
Appendix, 677. 

85 Cf. Philadelphia North American, April 21; New York Herald, 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 239 

The action of the seceders had an important influ- 
ence on the position of the Whig party, especially, of 
course, in the southern states. The news of these pro- 
ceedings at Washington reached the lower South just 
at the time when the Whigs of Alabama and Mississippi 
had begun seriously to take up the work of reorganiza- 
tion and tended to obstruct that process. Hence the 
Montgomery Alabama Journal, the Mobile Advertiser, 
and the Huntsville Advocate, the leading Whig papers 
of Alabama, regretted the secession of the southern 
members as ill-advised and unnecessary, while the 
Jackson Flag of the Union expressed but a mild and 
indirect approval of their course. 88 The southern Whig 
journals were divided in their opinion, but the course 
of the Marshall-Gentry faction and its withdrawal from 
the caucus were sustained by a considerable majority 
of them. 87 The discussion brought from all southern 
Whigs a renewal of the demand that the national con- 
vention pass a satisfactory resolution ratifying the 
finality of the compromise. 88 Moreover, a protest 

April 21; Baltimore Sun, April 21, 1852; Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 
Appendix, 622. 

It was a stormy night, one continuous outpouring of wind and rain — 
" the fierce and boisterous concentration of the collected elements of a 
three days' Nor'easter ". Inside the Senate chamber another storm was 
raging: "The great Whig party was struck amidships, between wind 
and water, and now threatens, under the first popular breeze, to go 
down with all on board." New York Herald, April 22, 1852. 

86 Montgomery Alabama Journal, April 27, May 5; Huntsville Advo- 
cate, in id., May 10; Mobile Advertiser, May 29; Jackson Flag of the 
Union, May 7, 1852. 

87 Cf. Nashville Republican Banner, April 28, May 8; Jackson Flag 
of the Union, May 7; New Orleans Bulletin, April 20, 23, 26, 30, 
May 4; Memphis Eagle and Enquirer, May 5; Milledgeville Southern 
Recorder, April 27, May 4; Savannah Republican, April 27; Washing- 
ton Union, April 27, 30, 1852. 

The Louisville Journal and other Scott papers strongly condemned 
the course of the seceders. 

88 See New Orleans Bulletin, April 26; Franklin Home Press, in Nash- 
ville Republican Banner, May 8, 1852. 



240 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

against the action of the caucus which sought to justify 
the course they had taken and which showed the ex- 
tent of the rupture, was drawn up by the seceders, ad- 
dressed to the Whigs of the United States, and pub- 
lished generally by the Whig press. 89 The proceedings 
of the caucus became the subject of many warm de- 
bates in Congress, which naturally stirred up consid- 
erable ill-feeling between the two groups of southern 
Whigs. 90 The Washington Union in commenting on 
the situation called it the dissolution of the Whig 
party. 91 Disaffected southern Whigs and national 
Whigs of the North made it the occasion for urging 
the necessity of a third party organization. 92 Immedi- 
ately after the caucus Senator Dawson sent a despatch 
to the Georgia Constitutional Union convention which 
was then considering the question of representation at 
the national conventions : " Breach wide and deep. 
Let the Constitutional Union party be firm, and the 
South will be safe. Avoid both Whig and Democratic 
conventions and the conservatives of all parties will 
rally with one party, and call a convention at Washing- 
ton." M 

The Georgia convention accordingly postponed defi- 
nite action until the work of the parties in their national 
conventions could be compared. A supplementary 
meeting of the Union Democrats, however, at once 
took steps toward sending delegates to the Baltimore 

89 National Intelligencer, April 29; Washington Union, April 29, 1852. 

90 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 1156-1159, 1379-1388; etc. 
"Washington Union, April 25, 1852. 

82 New York Herald, April 22, etc., 1852. 

83 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, April 27, 1852. Stanly said on 
June 12 that Abercrombie sent the same despatch simultaneously to the 
Alabama Union party. Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 690. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 241 

Democratic convention. 94 Most Georgia Whigs, how- 
ever, refused to be transferred to the Democratic party 
by their Union Democrat colleagues. 95 Their response 
to the call upon their old party allegiance came at the 
eleventh hour when, on June 7, with the national con- 
vention only a trifle over a week distant, a Fillmore 
state convention was held at Savannah which provided 
for representation in the Whig national convention. 90 
In Alabama and Mississippi, too, the Whigs argued 
that the preparations of the Union Democrats for rep- 
resentation in the national convention of their party 
had dissolved the Union organization there and left 
the Whig party as the legitimate Union party in those 
states. 97 The Whigs of Mississippi recovered first and 
held a state convention on the third of May in which 
they provided for representation at Baltimore in the 
interests of Fillmore. 98 The process of recovery was 
so slow in Alabama that the Whigs feared that there 
would be no time for a state convention. Accordingly, 
district meetings selected delegates to be sent to Balti- 
more, but preparations for representation were com- 
pleted at a state convention on June 10." On the same 
day the representatives of the little band of South 
Carolina Whigs undertook a similar task in order to 
give their state a voice in the national convention. 100 

94 Savannah Republican, April 23, 26; Milledgeville Southern Re- 
corder, April 27, 1852. 

95 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, April 27, 1852. 

96 Savannah Republican, June 8, 1852. 

97 Mobile Advertiser, April 21, 28; Montgomery Alabama Journal, 
April 24, 28, May 11; Jackson Flag of the Union, April 3, 23, 30; 
Natchez Courier, April 20, 1852. 

98 Jackson Flag of the Union, May 7, 1852. 

99 Mobile Advertiser, May 2, 12, June 16, 1852. 

100 Washington Republic, June 15; National Intelligencer, June 12, 
IS, 1852. 



242 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

One of the strong arguments in favor of representa- 
tion was that if the southern Whigs united in a body 
in support of Fillmore they might be able to secure 
his nomination with the help of the national Whigs 
of the North. This would preserve the national char- 
acter of the Whig party. A full representation was 
therefore urged as essential. " The truth is ", said 
Hilliard, who was very active in urging the representa- 
tion of Alabama on such grounds, that " the only place 
where we can serve our country, by helping to give 
it a sound administration, is the Whig convention ". 101 
But the southern Whigs laid down definite terms for 
the participation of their delegates in the convention. 
These delegates were urged and sometimes formally 
instructed to insist at the start on the adoption of a 
resolution committing the nominee to an unequivocal 
acceptance of the compromise of 1850 ; if this was re- 
fused, the southern members were to withdraw from 
the convention in a body. 102 The Tennessee state con- 
vention expressed its confidence that the convention 
would nominate only sound candidates; this was rig- 
orously insisted on by the Whigs of the other states 
as they took formal action. 

Less and less was said against Scott. He had con- 
sistently refused to come out with an unequivocal ex- 
pression of his position on the compromise such as 
would have satisfied most southern Whigs. 103 But his 
friends were allowed to make some indirect assurances. 



101 Montgomery Alabama Journal, May n, 1852. 

102 Cf. Raleigh Star, May 19; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, May 
18; Mobile Advertiser, June 1, 10, 1852. 

103 The Milledgeville Southern Recorder, May 11, 1852, speaking for 
a number of Georgia Whigs, refused to be satisfied with any letter at 
this stage. See also Savannah Republican, May 17, 1852. 



PROBLEM OF REORGANIZATION, 1851-1852 243 

In a letter dated May 3, Botts told the Virginia Whigs 
— and incidentally those of the whole South — how 
Scott had unburdened himself to him on that day, and 
how the General regretted that his position made it 
impossible for him to make an authoritative announce- 
ment. Botts was convinced that Scott was for the 
compromise in all its parts and that a safer and 
sounder man could not be found. 104 White of Kentucky 
declared before Congress on the eighth of April that 
he could testify to Scott's soundness and that he be- 
lieved himself authorized to say on behalf of General 
Scott, that he was opposed to the alteration of any of 
the compromise measures. He later explained that 
this statement was based on frequent conversations 
with Scott and declared that the latter had con- 
firmed his statement in more recent interviews. 105 But 
many demanded a more open avowal emanating from 
the candidate himself. Accordingly, the editor of the 
Georgetown, Kentucky, Herald was allowed to read a 
letter which, it was alleged, Scott had written to a 
prominent local Whig. In this letter Scott promised 
that, should the Whig national convention " call for my 
views on the leading questions of the day, they will be 
promptly and most explicitly given in writing". 100 Still 
later came the rumor from Washington that Scott had 
given the definite assurances which were desired in an 
interview with several members of the Maryland Whig 
convention. 107 

These statements proved acceptable to a large ele- 

104 Richmond Whig, May n, 1852. 

105 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 422, 638. 

106 Nashville Republican Banner, May 19, 1852. 

107 Memphis Eagle and Enquirer, May 27, 1852. 



244 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

ment of the party in the South, although many Fillmore 
and Webster men continued to assail Scott for his de- 
plorable lack of real openheartedness. Moreover, it is 
to be noted that the resolutions of the state conventions, 
in anticipation of Scott's selection at Baltimore, without 
an exception left a loop-hole for the support of any 
candidate " unequivocally in favor " or " known to be 
in favor " of sustaining the compromise measures. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Election of 1852. 

The Whig national convention convened at Baltimore 
on June 16. The southern delegates arrived on the 
ground early, after a series of conferences at Washing- 
ton where many of them had stopped to survey the 
situation. They were prepared to carry out the pro- 
gram which they had planned. On the evening of the 
fifteenth and on the following morning, a caucus of 
southern delegates, over which John G. Chapman of 
Maryland presided, agreed upon a series of resolutions, 
the adoption of which in a platform for the Whig 
party was to be made the condition of their continued 
participation in the deliberations of the convention. 1 

The contest with the northern Whigs was begun 
somewhat inauspiciously, for the southerners failed to 
secure a temporary chairman of their own choice, al- 
though they tried, with this very object, to forestall 
the northern delegates by calling the meeting to order 
a quarter of an hour before the appointed time. 2 The 

1 National Intelligencer, June 17; New York Herald, June 17 (all 
dates are of 1852 unless otherwise indicated). The authorship of these 
resolutions has been ascribed to Webster or his friends. Stephens, 
Constitutional View, II, 237-238. At the time, however, they were re- 
garded as of southern Whig origin and were believed to be the work 
of Humphrey Marshall. See Philadelphia North American, June 17; 
Louisville Journal, July 2, citing New York Express. Etheridge, a 
Tennessee Whig, stated definitely before the House, May 17, 1854, that 
the finality resolution " was penned by a southern gentleman (Mr. 
Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky) ". Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 
Appendix, 835. 

2 New York Herald, June 17. 

245 



246 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

permanent organization of the convention, however, 
placed Chapman in the chair after the Scott men had 
in vain rallied all their strength in committee on John 
M. Clayton of Delaware. On the second day, after the 
preliminary matters had been disposed of, Duncan of 
Louisiana moved that a committee on resolutions con- 
sisting of one member from each state should be 
appointed by the respective delegations and that the 
convention should not proceed to ballot upon candidates 
until the platform reported by the committee should 
have been passed upon. This called out objections from 
the northern members. Duncan replied : " Gentle- 
men, we want to know, in all honor and candor, who 
you are. We want you to show us your hands, and 
we are prepared to show you ours. We want to know if 
our principles are your principles and your principles 
ours. If they are not, and your principles and doctrines 
are different from ours, it is better we should all know 
it at once. . . . We desire to know . . . whether or 
not we can agree upon a platform, broad and strong 
enough to insure the union and success of the Whig 
party in the whole Union." 3 The second part of his 
motion, however, he withdrew at the request of other 
southern delegates, who considered it premature. 
Jessup of Pennsylvania next tried to amend the reso- 
lution that the committee should consist of one member 
from each state by providing that each member should 
be authorized to cast as many votes as his state had in 
the electoral college. This called forth from Senator 
Dawson of Georgia, after the amendment had secured 
a majority of five on a test vote and had been renewed 

8 New York Herald, June 18; cf. National Intelligencer and Philadelphia 
North American, of same date. 



ELECTION OF 1852 247 

by Jessup, a protest not so much in behalf of his sec- 
tion as of the small states on the basis of their sov- 
ereignty : " The attempt is made to connect this con- 
vention with the wildest sort of democracy — the democ- 
racy of numbers. For the first time the large States 
presume to control the sovereignty of the States. The 
principle contended for will uproot your constitution 
and the sovereign character of the States will be prosti- 
tuted to numbers." Had the Whig party departed so 
far from its conservative principles as to introduce 
and uphold this dangerous innovation ? It was, more- 
over, " the wildest effort that was ever made to alienate 
one section from another. . . . Whenever the party 
abandons those great principles, so help me God, I will 
abandon it ". 4 The question was fortunately not put to 
the test, for Jessup withdrew his amendment and the 
Duncan resolutions passed with slight amendment. 
This secured a committee favorable to the cause of 
the southerners, with Ashmun of Massachusetts, one of 
Webster's managers and a thorough compromise man, 
as chairman. 

To this committee were referred the resolutions 
adopted by the southern delegates. Among others that 
were suggested was one by Davis of Florida declaring 
that the Whig delegates would not support a candidate 
who had, " by his public acts and recorded opinions, 
left anything to be misunderstood as to his opinion on 
the compromise question ". Although later withdrawn 
at the suggestion of Cabell, the mere introduction of 
this resolution, coupled with the express intention of 
the southern delegates to withdraw and to form a 

4 New York Herald, June 18; Philadelphia North American, June 18; 
National Intelligencer, June 19. 



248 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

separate organization, probably in alliance with the 
Webster men, if a platform endorsing the finality of 
the compromise was not adopted before the nomina- 
tions, was enough to show the temper of the former. 
Meanwhile the committee on credentials reported and 
the compromise men scored another victory when the 
Fillmore delegates were admitted to contested seats. 
In the evening session on Friday, Ashmun, for the 
committee on resolutions, reported the platform sub- 
stantially as agreed upon in the southern caucus. This 
was followed by Choate's famous appeal for the sup- 
port of the resolutions and for the choice of a candi- 
date who stood for them rather than of one whose 
supporters had no pledges but " in breeches pockets ". 
This statement elicited a reply from John M. Botts, who, 
after denying that any one had a letter from Scott in 
his pocket, drew one from his own which he proceeded 
to read. It was addressed by Scott to Senator Archer 
of Virginia, and stated that while he would write noth- 
ing to the convention, he should, if nominated, give in 
his letter of acceptance a complete endorsement of the 
compromise measures. 5 The conditions under which 
the letter was produced furnished considerable amuse- 
ment for the convention. But the seriousness of the 
struggle that followed changed the situation into one 
of intense excitement. Botts closed his remarks by 
moving the previous question on the adoption of the 
resolutions. This led to a running debate amid great 
confusion. The northern delegates, who interpreted 
this move as a gag to stifle debate and to take away all 
chance of resistance, demanded their rights. 8 But the 

5 Scott to Wm. S. Archer, June 15, in National Intelligencer, June 21. 

6 Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, 1 52. 



ELECTION OF 1852 249 

question of the merits of the resolutions was thus 
avoided. Botts and the moderates who were directing 
these tactics successfully prevented a protracted debate 
which would have allowed the hot- spurs of the two 
extreme wings to work themselves into a passion that 
might have endangered harmonious cooperation in the 
convention and perhaps have led to a split. With the 
assistance of the officers of the convention, the final 
vote was taken and the platform containing the finality 
resolution was adopted, 227 to 66. All the nays were 
given by supporters of Scott from the North. 

Then began the balloting for a presidential candi- 
date. The first ballot gave Fillmore 133, Scott 131, and 
Webster 29, with 147 necessary for a choice. None of 
Webster's votes came from the South; on the other 
hand, all but 16 of Fillmore's were given by southern 
delegates, of whom Botts alone supported Scott. It 
is clear that the Fillmore and Webster men could at 
any time have nominated a candidate in opposition to 
Scott had they been able to unite on one. This seemed, 
to men who had no inside knowledge regarding the 
situation, to be the inevitable result of the convention. 
But when it adjourned over Sunday after a number 
of fruitless ballots the situation was substantially the 
same as at the beginning. It was anticipated that this 
adjournment would give the supporters of Webster and 
Fillmore the opportunity to get together and to con- 
centrate their votes on a single candidate. 7 This is 
exactly what was attempted, but failed because of the 
fact that too many Webster delegates were either 
" bitter-enders " or men who preferred Scott to Fill- 
more, 8 and because, among the southern Fillmore sup- 

7 New York Herald, June 21. 

8 See Van Tyne, Letters of Webster, 525, 529. 



250 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

porters, there were certain delegates who would have 
gone to the support of Scott as soon as their own choice 
seemed about to be abandoned. This became evi- 
dent on Sunday, when, after the Webster delegates 
proved obdurate, the attempt was made to rally the 
Fillmore men upon the northern compromise candidate 
— a movement which the president had made possible 
by secretly placing a letter of withdrawal in the hands 
of a delegate from the Buffalo district of New York 
with full authority to use it whenever it should be 
deemed proper. 9 It was found, however, that from 
fifteen to twenty or more delegates from Virginia, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri had decided to go 
for Scott when their comrades were transferred to 
Webster, while the Webster workers were unable to 
produce satisfactory evidence that he would have suf- 
ficient support in the North to secure the nomination. 10 
Under the circumstances the southern men could only 
hold fast to Fillmore. 

The situation was decidedly in favor of Scott's 
receiving the votes of enough southern delegates to 
obtain the nomination. Certain forces had for some 
time been at work to make a small group favorable 
to such action. As would have been expected, some 
southerners shared the belief that Scott was the only 
candidate whose availability gave him the chance of 
success in the election. The gradual moderation of 
the anti- slavery activity of the northern Whigs had 
also in all probability been brought to their notice. 
On the other hand, they came to regard the activity 

9 Fillmore to National Whig Convention, June 10. See his letter to 
Geo. R. Babcock, Buffalo Hist. Soc., Pubs., XI, 324-330; also Philadel- 
phia North American, June 21. 

10 Brown, Life of Choate, I, 180-181. 



ELECTION OF 1852 251 

of the Marshall-Gentry faction as entirely too intem- 
perate. These men, who had become more and more 
violent in their denunciation of Scott and the northern 
Whigs, had aired family quarrels before Congress 
and bitterly denounced those who differed with them ; 
even those southern members who attempted to justify 
their action in remaining in the congressional caucus 
were charged with inclining to the support of Scott. 11 
Not only did they denounce the conditions of Scott's 
candidature and the character of his supporters but 
Gentry even made bold in a speech in Congress two 
days before the opening of the convention to question 
Scott's advantages on the score of availability, on the 
ground that he had not " in his personal character, 
those attributes and qualities which make the people 
love him as they loved Jackson, Harrison, and Taylor ". 
He went further and declared that the Whig party 
could not nationalize itself by passing compromise res- 
olutions at Baltimore and then nominating Scott; he 
boldly announced that, if the party failed to submit to 
the process of nationalization, he was prepared to do 
his utmost to destroy it. 12 Such tactics as the Fillmore 
irreconcilables were resorting to, in denouncing the 
candidate who had the best chances of securing the 
nomination and whom they might be called upon to 
support, were considered as entirely lacking in pro- 
priety. Senator Jones of Tennessee was early con- 
vinced, as he told a Webster worker in New York, 
that the inconsiderate course of such friends as Mar- 
shall and Cabell must lead to the defeat of Fillmore's 



11 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 629. 

12 Ibid., 709-711. 

13 Van Tyne, Letters of Webster, 519. 



252 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

It was early anticipated that Scott would be suc- 
cessful with the assistance of southern votes. " The 
Scott men are very confident ", Toombs wrote on May 
27, " but I do not think much of their skill and tactics. 
It is certain that quite a number of the pretended 
friends of Fillmore in Tennessee, Kentucky and Vir- 
ginia are really for Scott and will back him if they 
dare to do it". 14 Letters from Scott were secretly used 
to bring about this result. It was rumored as early as 
June 1 1 that such letters were being shown to southern 
delegates in Washington to prove his soundness. 15 The 
New York Courier and Inquirer, a Webster organ, not- 
ing these rumors, berated southern men who would 
be willing to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage, 
and urged them to stick to the compromise and to the 
compromise candidates. " If you lift a finger to take 
Mr. Seward's candidate and give our man the go-by, 
then understand plainly that we compromise Whigs 
will join in with Mr. Seward and help him during the 
next four years to ' give you Jesse ' !' 16 Such a threat 
could have no healthy influence on men from the upper 
South who were already counted upon to reenforce 
the Scott men. Next the Archer letter, though clearly 
not intended for the public eye, was produced and 
shown to the Virginia and other southern delegates. 17 
Conditions at this point were favorable to an arrange- 
ment which would ensure Scott's success. A little 
group of southerners composed of Clayton, Botts, 
Jones, Reverdy Johnson, and others worked zealously 

14 Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence; see also T. D. Harris 
to Cobb, April 21, 1852, ibid.; Washington Union, May 4. 

15 Savannah Republican, June ir. 

16 Washington Union, June 13. 

17 Baltimore Patriot, June 15. 



ELECTION OF 1852 253 

in his interest. Botts had directed affairs among the 
southern delegates first at Washington and later at 
Baltimore, making a wise use of the Archer letter, and 
now had the situation well in hand. Acting as the 
medium between the Scott and the Fillmore men, he 
seems to have brought about a tacit understanding 
which assured Scott the vote of enough southerners at 
the proper moment to secure the nomination, in return 
for which a sufficient number of the northern friends 
of the general were to assist in the adoption of the 
southern platform. 18 Under some such arrangement 
the desired resolutions were adopted and the southern 
delegates were called upon to fulfill their obligations. 
Thus far the southern men had won almost unexpected 
victories in regard to committees, platform, and cre- 
dentials. These victories were regarded as the result 
of concessions on the part of Scott men and were in 
general conducive to greater harmony among the dele- 
gates from the two sections besides being favorable to 
Scott's nomination. 19 Certain southerners felt that they 
could afford to be generous. The Montgomery Ala- 
bama Journal, whose editor was a prominent delegate 
at the convention, announced : " Let the nomination 
therefore be who it may, the principles contended for 
are vindicated and established." * Said the New York 
Herald, the voting on Saturday from the seventh to 

18 New York Herald, June 18. Henry J. Raymond telegraphed to his 
paper, the New York Times, which published the despatch on June 19: 
" Tomorrow, it is believed, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and one or 
two others will give Scott the nomination on the third or fourth ballot. 
The northern Whigs gave way on the platform with this understanding. 
If Scott is not nominated they will charge breach of faith on the 
South." 

19 New York Herald, June 19, Washington Correspondence of June 
18. 

20 June 21. 



254 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the forty-sixth ballot without any substantial change 
" was only an indication of the fear on the part of 
Fillmore and Webster men, to venture a change from 
one to the other ". 21 Sunday brought the definite failure 
of the attempts at uniting the compromise forces on 
a single candidate and with it the announcement that 
the morrow would witness the nomination of Scott 
with southern support to the number of twenty votes 
if necessary. 22 

The first part of Monday's session was taken up with 
a consideration of the despatch that Henry J. Raymond, 
editor of the New York Times, had sent to his paper 
in which he reported an understanding between the 
northern and southern delegates and asserted that the 
latter would be open to the charge of breach of faith 
if they forced the defeat of Scott's nomination. Ren- 
neau of Georgia resented this charge of a " corrupt 
bargain " as applied to the delegates from his section 
and introduced resolutions ordering Raymond's ex- 
pulsion. A long debate ensued. A motion to lay this 
resolution on the table was at first defeated but when 
the question was put, after Raymond had had an op- 
portunity of offering an explanation, he was acquitted 
by the convention. His speech made it clear that his 
report had made no reference to a formal bargain 
between the delegates of the two sections : " I as- 
serted then, and I assert now, that in giving away as 
they [the northern delegates] did, upon the platform — 
in conceding, as they did to their brethren of the South, 

21 New York Herald, June 21. 

22 New York Herald, June 21. On Sunday the Tennessee delegation 
sent ex-Governor Jones to Washington and he returned bearing a 
pledge from Scott entirely satisfactory and covering every possible 
ground of objection. Washington Union, July 27. 



ELECTION OF 1852 255 

an important position, . . . the northern Whigs did it 
in the belief, and with the expectation, that they would 
be met in a similar spirit of concession and coalition by 
the Whigs of the South." He referred to the fact that 
the South had carried every vote but one against the 
North, that the whole business of the convention had 
been planned and its whole character shaped by a 
majority of states instead of a majority of numbers. 
He pointed to the fact that the northern men had shown 
their strength by carrying Jessup's amendment, which 
would have secured the advantage for a majority of 
numbers, and then had voluntarily withdrawn it and 
receded from their position. " If after having done all 
this for the sake of promoting harmony in the party 
and securing to it unity of feeling and of action, you 
of the South had not met them in a similar spirit, and 
conceded to them the poor boon of a candidate of their 
choice, I tell you now that you would have been ex- 
posed to the charge of bad faith." * 

The pointedness of the argument, together with the 
earnestness and the frankness of the speaker, had its 
effect upon the convention. The southerners did not 
desire to appear altogether devoid of a sense of grati- 
tude and of the spirit of compromise, especially as they 
had no hope for their own candidate. The balloting 
was resumed. It was simply a question of who would 
deliver up Fillmore and when it would be done. The 
fiftieth ballot brought important gains for Scott; the 
fifty-third gave him the nomination with 159 votes, as 
against Fillmore's 112 and Webster's 21. Virginia 
contributed eight, Tennessee and Missouri each three 
for the winning candidate. 

23 Maverick, Henry J. Raymond and the New York Press, 134, 135. 



256 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The attitude of the southern delegates toward the 
nomination is worthy of note: 

Amid the intense excitement and cheering a resolution was 
offered by a delegate from Alabama to declare the nomina- 
tion unanimous. 

Alabama and other delegates from the South, have stated 
that the adoption of the platform removed their instructions 
to vote against Scott. 

Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, read a letter from Scott dated 
yesterday, saying: — 

" Having the honor to be. a candidate of the Whig Conven- 
tion, I will accept the nomination, if tendered to me, with 
the platform laid down by the convention." 

Louisiana then pledged herself to the nominee. 

North Carolina came in unanimously. 

Mr. Grantland, of Georgia, announced Georgia for the 
nominee. 

Mr. Bryan of S. C. responded on behalf of the delegation of 
that State that General Scott had endorsed the platform, and 
South Carolina endorses Scott. 

The Chairman of the Alabama Delegation left his delegation 
to answer for themselves. 
Mississippi responded heartily in favor of the nominee. 

Georgia, through Mr. Dawson, responded, and promised that 
the Whigs of Georgia would accept Scott on the Whig plat- 
form, and would do their best to elect him. 

The responses from the South caused considerable enthusi- 
asm, and as each State responded, hearty cheers were given. 2i 

24 New York Herald, June 22. Cf. report in Philadelphia North 
American, June 22. 



ELECTION OF 1852 257 

The body of the southern delegates had supported 
Fillmore to the end with dogged determination : great 
was their disappointment when he failed to secure the 
nomination. Webster, however, their second choice, 
failed to secure a single vote from the representatives 
of the slave states. To the aged statesman this was a 
source of bitter disappointment. 25 No one, however, 
regretted it more than the southern delegates them- 
selves, for upon the records of the convention there 
was not a sign of their real sentiments. The Mississippi 
delegation before returning to their homes called on 
Webster to express their admiration for him and their 
regret that conditions had prevented them from giving 
him their votes. They explained that, had it not been 
for the fear that the abandonment of Fillmore would 
be the signal for some of the southern delegates to 
break for Scott, they would gladly have come to his 
support. As it was, they almost regretted that they 
had not done so regardless of consequences and thus 
taken the chance to set both Webster and themselves 
aright before the nation. 28 A large number of the 
southern Whigs in Congress tried to do this for them- 
selves and their constituents and so, less than a week 
after the convention, Webster was invited to a public 
dinner which might give them an opportunity to show 
their appreciation and devotion. 27 Webster accepted 
the honor but no day was named and the event never 
took place. 

When Scott came to write his letter of acceptance 
of the Whig nomination he found himself between the 

25 Van Tyne, Letters of Webster, 531-532. 

26 National Intelligencer, June 25 ; cf. Curtis, Life of Webster, II, 
622-623. 

27 National Intelligencer, June 30. 

18 



258 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Scylla of northern anti-slavery fanaticism and the Cha- 
rybdis of southern insistence upon the finality of the 
existing guarantees of slavery. Previous to his nom- 
ination, his northern managers had secured from him 
the promise of a letter that would neutralise the effect 
of the obnoxious platform in the North, and both 
Seward and Greeley, and perhaps others, had tried to 
draft a satisfactory letter for him. One was actually 
agreed upon which was ready to be promulgated upon 
the announcement of his nomination. 28 But before that 
time arrived Scott was subjected to new pressure from 
the opposite side. Not only had the Archer letter been 
secured from him to influence the southern delegates, 
but on Sunday, June 21, Senator Jones, who had gone 
to Washington as the representative of the Tennessee 
delegation to confer with Scott, was given a pledge that 
was intended to satisfy the southern delegates. 29 This 
was the letter read by Jones the next day, after the 
nomination had been made, 80 and by it Scott was defi- 
nitely committed to the acceptance of the platform. 
But it was necessary for him to do more than this to 
satisfy the southern irreconcilables, those who in their 
devotion to the conservative interests of their section 
had from the beginning to the end condemned the cir- 
cumstances of his candidature. Stephens tells us that 
he at once sent Scott a message urging an unequivocal 
endorsement of the platform and promising his support 
in that event. 31 But Scott could not go too far, although 

28 Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, 139-142. 

^National Intelligencer, Aug. 6; Washington Union, July 27. 

30 New York Herald, June 22; Philadelphia North American, June 
22 ; Washington Republic, June 22. Some reports give this as a tele- 
graphic despatch, which circumstantial and internal evidence proves 
impossible. See National Intelligencer, June 22. 

31 Avary, Recollections of A. H. Stephens, 28. 



ELECTION OF 1852 259 

his personal predilections were in full sympathy with 
the platform. 32 His formal letter of acceptance as it 
appeared on June 29 merely accepted the nomination 
" with the resolutions annexed ". 83 

This letter was preceded by an announcement from 
Seward that he would accept no "public station or 
preferment whatever " from Scott in the event of his 
election. 34 This was intended to calm the minds of 
those who feared that Seward, as the holder of an im- 
portant cabinet position, would direct the affairs of the 
administration. Such an assurance, however, was not 
enough for Stephens and Toombs and those who had 
in dismay beheld Seward working his way into the con- 
fidence of President Taylor, who had been regarded as 
peculiarly a southern candidate ; they remembered that 
the New York senator had within a short time become 
the power behind the throne, controlling not only ap- 
pointments, but, to an extent, even the executive policy. 
None of these were satisfied that things could be any 
better if Seward's own candidate should be elected. 
Accordingly, on the fifth of July, a " card " appeared 
bearing the signatures of nine former southern Whigs, 
most of whom had not intended to support Scott in any 
event. In this manifesto they made a joint statement 
of their position, announcing their refusal to support 
him and assigning several reasons therefor : that " he 
obstinately refused up to the time of his nomination, 
to give any public opinion in favor of the compromise " ; 
that " his letter of acceptance does not give them [the 
compromise measures] the approval of his judgment " ; 

32 Cf. Greeley, Recollections of a Busy Life, 279. 

83 National Intelligencer, June 29; Washington Republic, June 29. 

34 Seward to James B. Taylor, June 26, Washington Union, July 1. 



260 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

that " amongst the ' known incidents ' of his life there 
is not one ... in favor of the principles of the com- 
promise " ; and, finally, that he was considered as " the 
favorite candidate of the Free-soil wing of the Whig 
party " and hence would be partial to it if elected. The 
signers were Stephens, Toombs, and James Johnson of 
Georgia, White and Abercrombie of Alabama, Brooke 
of Mississippi, and Faulkner of Virginia, besides Gen- 
try and Williams of Tennessee, who appended their 
concurrence for part of the reasons assigned. 35 Hum- 
phrey Marshall, on the other hand, was reported as 
reconciled to Scott's nomination upon the Baltimore 
platform, while Cabell and Morton of Florida, and 
Caldwell and Outlaw of North Carolina, tried to endure 
their disappointment in silence. Clingman, however, 
made open preparations to join the Democrats in sup- 
port of their nominees, Pierce and King. But the im- 
portance of the manifesto was easily discredited by 
orthodox Whigs in the South, inasmuch as it could be 
shown that none of the signers of the main document 
had been elected to Congress as Whigs proper and 
that few of them had been attending the party cau- 
cuses. 30 They had, moreover, opposed the Whig con- 
vention from the beginning and had in advance repudi- 
ated its authority. Since it was hardly expected that 
they would support Scott under any conditions, their 
advice could scarcely carry much weight. 

35 National Intelligencer, July 5. 

88 Later in the canvass a card appeared, signed by Truman Smith and a 
number of other prominent Whigs, assigning a series of reasons why 
they could not support the Democratic ticket. It was a humorous at- 
tempt to counteract the effect of the original address, the inference 
being that these men were as much Democrats as the signers of the 
" southern Whig " card were real Whigs. Washington Union, Aug. 
28, 29, 31; Washington Republic, Aug. 14. 



ELECTION OF 1852 261 

Scott's nomination was received in the South with 
mingled expressions of satisfaction and disappoint- 
ment. Here and there it elicited a faint outburst of 
enthusiasm, but the attitude of the Whigs generally 
was one of coldness or of studied resignation. But 
the events of the canvass which followed the Whig 
national convention of 1852 demonstrated the sound- 
ness of the assertion previously made in Congress by 
Outlaw of North Carolina, that " party ties are among 
the strongest associations which bind men together ", 
that " the very name of party has a talismanic power 
on the passions and prejudices of the people ". ST At 
once a tremendous reaction began in favor of Scott 
that swept through the states of the upper South. Most 
of the Whigs there were willing to take his prompt 
acceptance of the platform as conclusive proof that 
" the old soldier is entirely released from the shackles 
of Seward and Company." 38 

In the lower tier of states, however, from North 
Carolina to Alabama and Mississippi, there was a seri- 
ous and wide-spread disaffection that greatly endan- 
gered Scott's cause in the South. There the Whigs 
had not fully recovered from their recent disorganiza- 
tion and had been in doubt as to what course to pursue 
up to the very eve of the convention; many members 
had been lost by desertion to the Democratic party in 
the break-up of the Union organizations in 185 1, and 
others were about to follow suit. But only in Georgia 
was the sentiment against Scott strong enough to 

87 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 678. 

88 New York Herald, June 23, Washington Correspondence, June 21. 
See editorials cited in the Washington Republic, June 25, 26, 29, July 
9; Nashville Republican Banner, June 23, 28. "Scott's letter is all 
his friends could desire, and a great deal more than his enemies can 
digest." Richmond Whig, June 30. 



262 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

threaten a serious third party or an independent Whig 
movement. In North Carolina, Alabama, and Mis- 
sissippi a large majority of the Whig party organs at 
once took up the General's cause. They frankly ad- 
mitted that Scott was not their first choice, but, stated 
the Mobile Advertiser, " it is due to ourselves and to 
him to say that our preference for another was not 
attributable to distrust of him ", 38 They even asserted 
that they had never doubted or questioned his sound- 
ness on all questions relating to the constitutional rights 
of the South, of which they had conclusive personal 
knowledge. 40 " The Whig convention ", commented the 
Jackson Flag of the Union on June 25, " as a prelim- 
inary step, and before the name of any gentleman was 
submitted, adopted calmly and deliberately, a platform 
embracing the Compromise as a settlement. . . . On 
this firm foundation our candidates now stand as the 
conservators of the public tranquillity; and the veteran 
Chief, who never skulked from an enemy or wrapped 
an opinion in equivocation, stands before the country 
pledged to sustain those measures of pacification which 
have been endorsed and ratified by the National Whig 
Convention." Scott's letter was hailed by them as an 
open, straightforward, and candid avowal of his senti- 
ments, by which he planted himself on the broad plat- 
form of the constitution and union. 41 

On the other hand, Scott's nomination proved a bit- 
ter pill to many old and staunch Whigs. Prominent 
men from all parts of the South were included in the 
ranks of the disaffected. Besides those members of 
Congress whose course has been referred to, W. D. 

39 June 23. 

40 Montgomery Alabama Journal, June 23. 

41 Montgomery Alabama Journal, July 7; Mobile Advertiser, July 7. 



ELECTION OF 1X52 263 

Merrick and John Henderson, former Whig senators 
from Maryland and Mississippi respectively, Daniel 
Jenifer of Maryland, James Lyons of Virginia, Ken- 
neth Rayner of North Carolina, Waddy Thompson of 
South Carolina, and Parson Brownlow, the spirited 
Whig editor in Tennessee, were among the more prom- 
inent of those who repudiated the Whig nominee. One 
of the electors in Tennessee and two in Louisiana re- 
fused to act after Scott's nomination and had to be re- 
placed by loyal men. 42 

No less than five Alabama Whig papers refused at 
the outset to support the Whig national ticket, although 
they were overwhelmingly overbalanced in numbers 
and influence by the Scott press. In North Carolina, 
the Wilmington Commercial and the Asheville News 
rejected Scott; the News shortly turned to the support 
of the Democratic ticket. " A second Washington was 
repudiated in the person of Fillmore ", declared the 
Commercial,™ and it acted as the organ of an abortive 
independent movement in favor of Webster and Jen- 
kins. The bolters pronounced the inglorious end of 
the Whig party and formed an organization which they 
termed " National Republican ".** The number of 
those, however, who took an active part gradually 
diminished until it was finally necessary to dissolve the 
organization, leaving the members at full liberty to 
pursue whatever course they chose. 45 

In Georgia, conditions were much more serious. 
Stephens and Toombs had telegraphed home the news 

42 Nashville Republican Banner, July 7; New Orleans Bulletin, July 
30, Aug. 2. 

43 Wilmington Commercial, July 29. 

44 Id., Aug. 10, 26, 31, Sept. 2, Oct. 5. 

45 Id., Oct. 14. 



264 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

of Scott's nomination and had advised against his sup- 
port by the Constitutional Union party. The organs of 
that party concurred in this repudiation of the Whig 
candidate. 46 It was believed that Scott's nomination 
meant the triumph of Seward and the free-soilers. 4T 
Many Whigs, however, refused to follow this lead and 
defended Scott from the charges brought against him. 
This wing was led by Senator Dawson, who had 
pledged himself at the national convention to attempt 
to carry Georgia for the nominee, and by Judge Flem- 
ing, who took a prominent part in a ratification meeting 
at Savannah early in July, 48 as well as in the later move- 
ments of this group. The Union Whigs found them- 
selves unable to agree with the Union Democrats as to 
the proper course to pursue ; when it seemed that the 
latter were trying not only to thrust Pierce and King 
down the throats of former Whigs, but to democratize 
them, the dissolution of the Constitutional Union party, 
in which they had cooperated, was proclaimed, and 
most of those of Whig antecedents agreed upon a third- 
candidate movement — a step which both Stephens and 
Charles J. Jenkins had recommended at an early date. 49 

46 Cf. Savannah Republican, June 23, 24, 29. The Macon Citizen 
was the only prominent paper supporting Scott. 

47 Savannah Republican, June 29; Augusta Chronicle, in Washington 
Union, June 29; Miller, Bench and Bar of Georgia, II, 414. 

48 See his letter in answer to the southern Whig manifesto, Savannah 
Republican, July 10; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, July 20. 

49 Stephens to Jas. W. Jones, June 29, Milledgeville Southern Re- 
corder, July 13; Chas. J. Jenkins to P. W. Alexander, July 1, Savannah 
Republican, July 7. Stephens' influence alone probably prevented 
Toombs from going over to the Democrats. The Savannah Republican 
announced that the Whigs were divided into " Union Whigs and 
Southern Rights Whigs, Scott Whigs and anti-Scott Whigs, Pierce 
Whigs and anti-Pierce Whigs, stand-still Whigs or those who wash 
their hands of both the candidates and will have nothing to do with 
either, and Tertium Quids or those who go for a third candidate ". 
National Intelligencer, July 26. 



ELECTION OF 1852 - 265 

This newly aroused fear of absorption into the Democ- 
racy, "into all the evils of locofocoism ", " gave great 
impetus to the Scott movement and the General's cause 
made considerable headway for a time. It even came 
to be hoped that the two Whig groups would agree 
to unite upon a single candidate when their respective 
conventions met at Macon on two consecutive days in 
August. 51 Negotiations to harmonize the action of the 
two divisions and to effect a reunion were actually car- 
ried on, but as these efforts failed, the Scott convention 
ratified the Baltimore nominations and appointed an 
electoral ticket, while the independent Whigs, after 
adopting a platform, nominated Webster and Jenkins 
as their candidates with a separate set of electors. 52 

Meantime the canvass had been going on, but it was 
devoid of much of the interest and enthusiasm of pre- 
vious campaigns. In many places the Whigs were less 
than lukewarm. There was little of the usual recogni- 
tion of military eclat, little response to the portrayal of 
the brilliant career of the hero of Fort George, Chip- 
pewa, Niagara, Vera Cruz, Churubusco, Chepultepec, 
and Mexico. The staple argument against the Whigs 
in the southern states was naturally the charge that 
their candidate was unsound. The Democrats had the 
advantage of knowing the arguments which the south- 
ern Whigs had used against Scott prior to his nomina- 
tion. The leaders were discouraged by the indifference 
of those Whigs who did not desert. They argued in 
vain that Pierce was supported by a more formidable 

30 Savannah Republican, July 20, Aug. 9; Milledgeville Southern 
Recorder, Aug. 3, 17. 

61 Savannah Republican, Aug. 7, 10. 

62 Id., Aug. 19, 23; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, Aug. 24, 31; 
National Intelligencer, Aug. 19, 21. 



266 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

array of f ree-soilers than Scott ; that Scott, a southern 
man born and reared in contact with the slave institu- 
tion, was opposed by a man who at most could only 
claim to be a northern man with southern principles; 
that the Whig platform showed greater respect for 
southern rights than the Democratic platform, even 
though it had been opposed by a large share of the 
Scott delegates from the northern states. 

The argument that the principles of the party were 
of greater importance than the candidate, was effect- 
ively used to belittle the attacks upon Scott's soundness 
and to call attention to the satisfactory character of 
the Whig platform. " The man selected ", asserted the 
Louisiana Spectator, " is the mere representative of 
principles — the mere agent to carry them out into 
practice." 63 The real issue, argued the Jackson Flag of 
the Union, " should be the principles of parties as seen 
in their platforms. We consider the doctrines consti- 
tuting the Whig platform, as the great conservative 
policy of the nation, and we, therefore, advocate the 
election of General Scott, because we believe he will 
administer the affairs of government in accordance 
with the platform laid down ". M "Are we not for the 
sake of our principles compelled to support him?" 
asked C. C. Langdon, of the Mobile Advertiser. " We 
support the principles of our party — those principles 
for which all good Whigs have labored — and not the 
man. We vote for the man to secure a triumph of our 
cause." Bts The southern democracy was attacked not 
only as the traditional enemy of the Whigs but also, in 

Bs Jackson Flag of the Union, July 16; see also Nashville Republican 
Banner, June 23. 

54 Sept. 24. 

55 July 10. 



ELECTION OF 1852 267 

the lower South, as the secession party, composed of 
the advocates of extreme state rights views and dis- 
union sentiments, which were inconsistent with true 
conservatism. 58 Such principles were enough to keep 
the conservatives loyal to the Whig party. 

Every effort, however, was made to clear up all doubt 
as to Scott's soundness. The Mississippi delegates to 
the national convention brought back evidence of con- 
siderable importance. After the nominations, they had 
called on Scott who then gave the compromise meas- 
ures his hearty approval, assuring them that it was no 
new-born faith with him, for he was one of the first 
to come out for the compromise proposition. 57 Other 
delegates had opposed Scott's nomination but had had 
similar opportunities to come in personal contact with 
him and were won over by their friendly reception and 
by the earnest assertion — " I am a friend of the Union 
and the Compromise, and my life would belie any other 
declaration ". 6S Much use was of course made of such 
material. Governor Foote of Mississippi and his rival 
and predecessor, General Quitman, both Democrats, 
also contributed, though perhaps unwittingly, to Scott's 
cause in the South. Quitman, who as a " State Rights " 
man opposed the regular Democratic nominee, testified 
that Scott had openly declared himself in favor of the 
compromise before Fillmore's opinion was known and 
on this ground had stronger claims for support than 
either Fillmore or Webster. As to the apprehension 

58 Jackson Flag of the Union, Sept. 3, Oct. 15; Montgomery Alabama 
Journal, Oct. 28; Savannah Republican, Aug. 24; Washington Re- 
public, Aug. 5. 

67 Jackson Flag of the Union, July 16, 23; see also Aug. 6, Oct. 22. 

58 Letter of E. A. Holt, an Alabama delegate, Montgomery Alabama 
Journal, Sept. 8. 



268 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

that Scott would be controlled by Seward and politi- 
cians of that stripe, he expressed his belief that Scott 
would " be controlled by no man, not the whole Whig 
party, against his convictions ". B9 Foote did justice to 
Scott in his speech to a Democratic mass meeting at 
Jackson, stating that he knew him to be an early and 
original friend of the compromise measures and that 
the Whig platform was as sound on the question of 
slavery as the Democratic platform. 00 

The campaign was characterized by much letter-writ- 
ing on the part of the leading men of the party; 
personal explanations were necessary to make clear 
their position or to elaborate arguments which would 
hold Whigs to their duty of supporting their nominee. 
President Fillmore wrote two letters in Scott's behalf, 
one at the beginning and the other toward the end of 
the canvass. 61 Hilliard, who had always proved him- 
self a zealous advocate of southern rights, promptly 
endorsed Scott and asserted his undoubted soundness, 
adding, " The Whig party must be a national party; 
it must hold opinions which embrace the interests of 
the North and South alike; and never have I seen a 
conjuncture more favorable to the growth of patriotic 
sentiments . . . than the present ", 62 Strother of Vir- 
ginia, who had been supported by the Democratic press 
because he refused to accept Scott, published a letter 

09 Natchez Free Trader, July 24. Cf. Memphis Eagle and Enquirer, 
July 4; Jackson Flag of the Union, July 30. 

80 Natchez Courier, Oct. 12. 

01 Letter of July 19, in Philadelphia North American, July 27; 
Washington Republic, July 28; letter of Oct. 15, in Washington Union, 
Oct. 26; New Orleans Bulletin, Oct. 30. 

62 Montgomery Alabama Journal, July 12; Hilliard, Politics and Pen 
Pictures, 261. See letter of Judge A. F. Hopkins of Alabama, July 
12, in Jackson Flag of the Union, Aug. 20. 



ELECTION OF 1852 269 

in which he advocated the election of the Whig candi- 
dates. 63 Moore and Landry of Louisiana found it nec- 
essary to come out with a card to the same purport. 64 
Senators Pearce of Maryland and Badger of North 
Carolina added their testimony to the evidence of 
Scott's early advocacy of the compromise acts. 65 Gra- 
ham, the vice-presidential candidate, offered further 
assurances of the soundness of his running mate with 
testimony of his devotion to the measures of pacifica- 
tion in their hour of trial. 68 Even Berrien announced 
his adhesion with the conviction, formed after an ac- 
quaintance of more than a quarter of a century, that 
Scott was not a man who would be liable to be affected 
by any undue influence in administering the govern- 
ment. 67 All this was expected to make up for Scott's 
own unwillingness to use the pen. Before the canvass 
closed both Cabell and Morton of Florida publicly af- 
firmed their acquiescence in the decision of the Whig 
party of their state and their willingness to support 
Scott. 68 With this weight of opinion in the General's 
favor it is evident that his strength was each day be- 
coming greater in the South. 

The Whigs gave so much attention to the defence of 
Scott's soundness that little opportunity remained for 
constructive arguments. When, however, they felt jus- 
tified in giving time to these arguments, they elaborated 
the principles of whiggery, which in general were the 

63 Letter to Warrenton Whig, Washington Republic, Aug. 18. 

64 National Intelligencer, Aug. 25, Sept. 14; Washington Republic, 
Sept. 16. 

65 Washington Republic, Sept. 16, 28. 

M Graham to editor of Wilmington Commercial, Aug. 24, in issue 
of Aug. 31. Cf. letter of Sept. 4, Washington Republic, Oct. 1. 
•* Berrien to C. R. Hanleiter, Oct. 18, Savannah Republican, Oct. 27. 
68 Washington Republic, Aug. 23; National Intelligencer, Oct. 7. 



270 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

constant object of their praise. They pointed out that 
theirs was the only party to feel a keen interest in the 
industrial development of the country, or to understand 
the wants and interests, the character and the genius of 
the American people, and that Whig conservatism alone 
could save the nation from ruin and disaster. In answer 
to the query, " What are the Whigs fighting for ? " the 
New Orleans Bulletin of August 4 replied : " For the 
man who has been fighting for his country for more 
than forty years, for river improvements, for railroad 
improvements, for American industry; for the devel- 
opment of the resources of the country, for the eleva- 
tion of our people, socially, intellectually, and relig- 
iously; for the perpetuation of the Union and the liber- 
ties of our happy land; for all the vast and varied 
interests of the country, which we desire shall be placed 
on a stable and prosperous basis; for true men and 
tried patriots; in fine for SCOTT, GRAHAM, OUR 
COUNTRY AND VICTORY ! " " Democratic ascend- 
ancy, in our opinion ", stated the Milledgeville Southern 
Recorder, " was never more to be dreaded than now. 
The whole tendency of that party, in our judgment, is 
at this moment more threatening to the peace and pros- 
perity of the country, than it has been at any previous 
time. Without the influence of Whig conservatism, 
should the Democratic party control the counsels of 
the country, we verily fear that the country in one 
year would be involved in war, and in other measures 
quite as destructive to its happiness and prosperity. ,, 69 
Whigs were warned against a party "composed of 
Disunionists, Abolitionists, Filibusters, Intervention- 

69 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, Sept. 7. 



ELECTION OF 1852 271 

ists, and Demagogues ". 70 " Democratic success ", de- 
clared the Montgomery Alabama Journal of November 
2, in its last appeal to Whigs, " will mean the prostra- 
tion of the conservative Whig party and the accession 
of the Pierce- Van Buren-free-soil-intervention-Polk- 
proviso-white-basis party ". 

Most interesting, without doubt, was the canvass in 
Tennessee and Georgia — in the former for the desper- 
ate effort that was made to retain the state for Scott, 
and in the latter for the many complexities of the situ- 
ation as well as for the rapidly increasing Scott 
strength. Tennessee placed a formidable array of 
Whig orators in the field, who hoped by ceaseless labor 
to counteract the influence of the Gentry-Williams- 
Brownlow secession, and to repeat the victory of 1840, 
when the W 7 higs had labored under a similar embarrass- 
ment. Senator Jones and Cullom were almost daily 
on the stump, as were a large number of local leaders. 71 
Ratification meetings were held in different sections of 
the state, numerous Scott Clubs were formed, and the 
Whig papers were full of the Scott fire. 72 Before the 
end of the campaign arrived, almost every vestige of 
popular disaffection had passed away and the leaders 
were sanguine of success. 

With the Georgia Whigs divided between Scott and 
Webster, but unanimous as to principles, their energies 
were directed toward promoting harmony as friends 
against a common enemy, to oppose whom they would 
reunite after the canvass. It was hoped that the nomi- 

70 Savannah Republican, Aug. 17. 

71 Nashville Republican Banner, Oct. 7. 

72 It was even charged later that the Whig State Committee received 
funds from outside for conducting the campaign. Nashville Republican 
Banner, July 18, 1853. 



272 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

nation of two tickets, which avoided offending those 
unreconciled to a compromise arrangement, would sat- 
isfy all and bring out the full Whig strength. Accord- 
ingly, a disposition was manifested by both wings to 
respect each other's differences and to avoid abuse and 
recrimination. There was, of course, the possibility 
that the election might be thrown into the legislature, 
where the Whigs counted on having a majority but 
where union on one candidate was necessary to profit 
from this fact. 73 At least, the existence of the party 
would be preserved to prevent permanent Democratic 
ascendancy, and to save Georgia from " South Carolina 
one-sided Democracy ". 74 Hence the independent 
Whigs, instead of opposing Scott, prepared to defend 
him whenever necessary. 75 He was pronounced by 
nearly all those of Whig antecedents to be infinitely 
superior to Pierce. They only regretted that the evi- 
dence of his soundness, which had come out during 
the campaign, had not been authentically furnished by 
Scott before his nomination or in his letter of accept- 
ance. 78 Stephens and those who supported the Webster 
ticket with the idea of repudiating both old parties and 
of forming a new one, had to be contented with a 
limited and local following." The consistent members 

73 Cf. Toombs to Crittenden, Oct. 9, 1852, Crittenden MSS. 

74 Milledgeville Southern Recorder, Sept. 7. 

75 Savannah Republican, Aug. 21. The Columbus Enquirer definitely 
enlisted in Scott's cause, and the Savannah Republican, Aug. 24, and 
the Milledgeville Southern Recorder, Aug. 31, posted both tickets at the 
head of their columns, but the Webster ticket first in order. 

76 Savannah Republican, Aug. 27. " As it is, we say to the Whigs 
of Georgia, there is no reason, so far as regards his sentiments on the 
Compromise measures, why they shall not cast their suffrages for 
General Scott." Id., Oct. 14. 

77 Cf. Stephens's speech at Macon, Savannah Republican, Sept. 18; 
also at Crawfordsville, Milledgeville Southern Recorder, Sept. 2. 



ELECTION OF 1852 273 

of this group showed their devotion to their cause 
when, after Webster's death in the closing days of the 
campaign, they still adhered to their independent move- 
ment and voted for their deceased candidate. 

The outcome of the election in the South occasioned 
no great surprise. The preliminary state elections in 
North Carolina and Florida had brought severe Whig 
reverses and the disaffection was expected to come 
more into play in the presidential contest. The predic- 
tion that Scott would fail to carry a single southern 
state was realized with but two exceptions, Kentucky 
and Tennessee. North Carolina was lost by nearly 
seven hundred — in part the result of the influence and 
activity of Clingman in the mountain districts in behalf 
of the Democratic candidates. Elsewhere the returns 
were strongly Democratic except in Delaware where 
Pierce won by but twenty-five votes. The southern 
Whigs could not be persuaded to trust Scott and the 
northern members of the party. 78 

The conspicuous feature of the election was the large 
stay-at-home vote in the South. Probably one hundred 
thousand voters failed to exercise their electoral fran- 
chise. In Alabama Scott received scarcely half the 
number of votes cast for Taylor four years before. In 
Florida and North Carolina his vote was smaller by 
thousands than that of the Whig candidates in the state 

78 Toombs wrote to Crittenden, Nov. 9: "The Presidential election 
went very much as I expected except in Tenn. and Ky. . . . The nation 
had determined with singular unanimity to take a man without claims 
or qualifications surrounded by as desperate and dirty a set of political 
gamesters as ever Catiline assembled rather than the canting hypocrites 
who brought out Gen. Scott. The decision was a wise one. We can 
never have peace and security with Seward, Greeley and Co. in the 
ascendant in our national affairs and we had better purchase them by 
the destruction of the Whig party than of the Union." Crittenden 
MSS. 

19 



274 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

elections held a few weeks previously. Even in 
Georgia, with the two tickets, fully twenty thousand 
Whig voters, or one-half of the party, failed to go to 
the polls. 79 In Alabama at least many Whigs supported 
the Troup and Quitman State Rights ticket as an alter- 
native to voting for either Scott or Pierce. 80 Every- 
where there was a falling off in the Whig vote. 

The southern Whig journals in explaining the result 
failed to take cognizance of the fact that similar con- 
ditions prevailed in the Democratic camp and prevented 
that party from polling its full strength. Hence they 
held that the election, with the fairly small Democratic 
majorities returned, was really a sign of Whig strength 
and showed what the party could do when united upon 
a candidate. They did not feel with the northern anti- 
slavery Whigs and with Stephens's independents that 
it was really the death-blow to the Whig party ; so they 
diagnosed the situation with the view of healing the 
wound, whereas those who felt that the end of the party 
was at hand prepared to hold a post-mortem over the 
remains. 

The cause of the defeat and of Pierce's election was 
assigned to the absence of the Whigs from the polls ; 
the result was not considered as evidence of the weak- 
ness of Whig principles. It was the essential con- 
servatism behind these principles which in the judge- 
ment of many constituted the chief value of the party. 

79 At Brunswick, Glynn County, Georgia, no polls were opened, it 
being the deliberate opinion of the people that none of the candidates 
were worthy of support. National Intelligencer, Nov. 10. The Nash- 
ville Republican Banner, Dec. 14, claimed a falling off of 86,000 in the 
Whig vote of the South. 

80 " With the exception of a very few honest and sincere Southern 
rights men, the great body of those who voted for Troup and Quitman 
were Whigs." Montgomery Alabama Journal, Nov. 25. 



ELECTION OF 1852 275 

Upon these, the Whigs could rally for another fight. 
But to heal the breach it was necessary to effect the re- 
turn of the disaffected to the party allegiance. It was 
decided that they must not be condemned nor ostracized 
for the course they had pursued, since it involved no 
antagonism in principle, that there must be no crimina- 
tions and recriminations, but that, by burying this 
recent disagreement among other bygones, harmony 
and cooperation could be restored. On the other hand, 
it was decided that those out of sympathy with the 
cause should be driven out of the Whig camp, as they 
could do less injury when on the outside than when 
on the inside. Comparatively little was said of either 
faction of the northern wing. There could be no doubt 
that Seward and his allies had been fatal to Scott's 
success and that of the Whigs, but it was hoped that 
they would now recognize that they were out of place 
in the Whig party and that the northern wing would 
be purged of all but the real conservatives. 81 

The forces for reorganization made an abortive ef- 
fort immediately after the election. The Whig sages 
of Tennessee gathered around the festive board, not to 
celebrate a victory, but to take into serious considera- 
tion the future of the party. 82 In Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi the matter was taken up by the press and by 
party meetings, 83 both of which recommended a thor- 
ough reorganization of the party in those states upon 
the old issues. The Whigs of Louisiana, who claimed 
that the new constitution, which the state had just 

81 See Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, in New York Tribune, Nov. 
15. 1852. 

82 Nashville Republican Banner, Dec. 3 ; Memphis Eagle and En- 
quirer, Dec. 9. 

83 Jackson Flag of the Union, Nov. 19; Memphis Eagle and Enquirer, 
Dec. 12. 



276 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

adopted, was a Whig production, 84 hoped to be able to 
capture the first election under it as the proper reward 
for their work. But there was little response anywhere 
to the demand for reorganization; in Louisiana the 
Whigs failed to do as well as in the presidential election 
less than two months before, thus allowing the Demo- 
crats to take complete control of the state government 
and to reapportion the congressional districts so as to 
ensure a Democratic delegation for the next Congress. 85 

84 New Orleans Bulletin, Nov. 17, 20, Dec. 18, 27. They pointed out 
that it gave the state a chance for development in the line of banking 
and railroads. The Whigs as the slave-holders had advocated the ap- 
portionment of representation on the basis of the total population, in- 
cluding slaves, and having secured it, boasted that the constitution 
would guarantee Whig control in Louisiana for at least another genera- 
tion. Cf. Butler, Judah P. Benjamin, no. 

85 National Intelligencer, May 10, 1853. 



CHAPTER IX. 
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 

The state and congressional elections of 1853, besides 
revealing the demoralization of whiggery in the South, 
gave conclusive proof that there was no longer a 
national Whig party in any sense of the term. In 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina a 
fairly active canvass was carried on under the old 
party lines, although the Democrats were entirely un- 
opposed in many districts where opposition seemed 
hopeless. Yet the Whigs barely held their own in 
Kentucky, failed to secure a single member of Congress 
from Virginia, lost two more districts in North Caro- 
lina to the Democrats, who thus secured a majority of 
the delegation, and in Tennessee, where under the new 
apportionment they had counted on eight out of the 
ten districts, they had to be satisfied with an equal divi- 
sion with their opponents, who also elected Andrew 
Johnson, their candidate for governor, by over two 
thousand. 1 In Maryland and Louisiana uninteresting 
and unexciting contests were carried on : in both the 
Whigs were badly defeated ; the Louisiana Democrats, 
aided by a rearrangement of the districts, secured every 
congressman but one, while their Maryland brethren 
reversed the situation there by electing four out of the 
six members. 

1 The Tennessee Whigs later regained one congressman in the first 
district. 

277 



278 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The situation in the states of the lower South again 
demands greater attention. In Alabama the Whigs 
planned a contest on old party lines but their nominee 
for governor declined to make the canvass. Although 
the candidates for the legislature and for Congress then 
laid especial emphasis upon the Union issue and at- 
tacked the Democrats for their fire-eating propensities, 
the party suffered a defeat which proved fatal to its 
continuance there. 2 The situation in Georgia was quite 
similar. Howell Cobb and the Union Democratic lead- 
ers had renounced the Union movement as no longer 
necessary, but the Whigs, joined by many Union 
Democrats, calling themselves " Conservatives ", " Re- 
publicans ", " Unionists ", or " Union Conservatives ", 
under the leadership of Stephens and Toombs, nomi- 
nated Charles J. Jenkins for governor. 3 They thus 
came very near being successful in their opposition to 
the " secessionists ", being defeated by a majority of 
only five hundred. 4 

The Mississippi Whigs made a desperate effort to 
recover and to reorganize. " There never has been a 
period in the political history of Mississippi that more 
required a thorough organization of the friends of law, 
order, and good government than the present ", de- 
clared the Jackson Flag of the Union. " By the united 
action of the good old Whig party, the State may yet 
stand ' redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled ', and 
assume her proper station among her sisters of the 

2 They saved but a single congressman, Abercrombie, the insurgent, 
who was reelected from the Montgomery district. 

3 Savannah Republican, June 24, July 6. There was some talk among 
certain Scott Whigs of a third convention to nominate a real Whig 
ticket. See Macon Citizen, in Washington Union, July 24, 27, 1853. 

4 Savannah Republican, Oct. 10, 1853. Stephens and Reese were 
elected to Congress out of a delegation of eight. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 279 

confederacy." B Conceding Democratic control of na- 
tional affairs, they prepared to take up local issues as 
the basis for their efforts. " With favorable climate, 
soil, and natural resources ", read the address of the 
Whig Executive Committee calling a state convention, 
" we yet present the humiliating spectacle of a State 
wholly without any great works of internal improve- 
ment, or development of those resources, from the aid 
and assistance of our State government. Our State, 
under twelve or fourteen years of Democratic rule, has 
been permitted to remain stationary, while all our sister 
States are engaged in a generous emulation as to who 
shall best work and agree in this great cause of im- 
provement and real progress." 8 They prepared to agi- 
tate for the redemption of the honor of the state by the 
payment of the repudiated bonds and to act as a party 
of retrenchment and reform. They hoped that twelve 
years of Democratic " misrule " had made the situation 
unbearable, the time ripe for a reaction. 

So they brought all the party machinery into opera- 
tion — local meetings, county conventions, the central 
executive committee, and a state convention. Before 
the state convention was held, however, a double Dem- 
ocratic split, growing out of the action of the state con- 
vention, which had forced the withdrawal of the inde- 
pendent-spirited Union men and then alienated many 
State Rights Democrats by passing over the superior 
claims of their candidate for congressman at large, 7 

5 Jackson Flag of the Union, Jan. 28, 1853. 

6 Id., March 18, 1853; see editorial of April 15, entitled "The Con- 
servative and the Progressive." 

7 Davis, Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians, 330-334; 
Monticello Journal, May 14, 28; Houston Southern Argus, May 11, 
25, 1853- 



28o WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

caused the Whigs to alter their plans. At once their 
leading journals espoused the Union cause and con- 
demned the corruption of caucuses and conventions, 
which were so prone to subordinate the will of the 
people to the desire for the spoils. " The spirit of party 
has ruled Mississippi with a rod of iron, and has borne 
like the nightmare upon her energies and best interests. 
It is time to shake off the incubus. Let the people call 
to places of trust and responsibility pure patriots, with- 
out regard to old party distinctions, regarding only 
their honesty and capability and their Integrity to the 
Union and the Constitution/' 8 When the Whig conven- 
tion met at the appointed time, in place of formal nomi- 
nations it only adopted resolutions endorsing candi- 
dates already in the field as " the choice of the people ". 
Though all the men named were Whigs, the candida- 
ture of Governor Foote for the United States Senate 
and of the Union Democratic congressmen for reelec- 
tion was later approved by this new Union movement. 
An interesting canvass followed. The Union men, bar- 
ring out old party issues, insisted that the contest was 
between the Union party and the State Rights party, 
repeating the contest of 185 1. The bond question 
was dropped as one that might preclude Democratic 
cooperation ; 9 the sentiments of Pierce's inaugural were 
stamped with approval. But all this was in vain. It 
was impossible to duplicate the victory of 185 1. The 
Democratic state ticket was elected and every one of 

8 American Citizen, in Jackson Flag of the Union, June 24; cf. 
Natchez Courier, Raymond Hinds County Gazette, in ibid.; id., June 
17, 1853- 

9 The Democrats were quite ready to hold the Whigs to the advo- 
cacy of the payment of the bonds. Houston Southern Argus, Sept. 14, 
1853. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 281 

the Democratic candidates for Congress, although all 
the Union men of the last delegation — two Democrats 
and one Whig, were up for reelection. 

It is evident that the Whig party in the South had 
degenerated into a mere opposition party, ready to 
act under one name or another in the cause " against 
the Democrats ". " The cardinal principles and policy 
of the Whig party will endure under every vicissitude 
of fortune ", wrote Senator Bell of Tennessee after 
Scott's defeat, " and an organization in some form, 
and under some denomination, Whig, Conservative, or 
what not — some method of securing a concentrated 
effort by which those principles can be brought to bear, 
and have a salutary influence upon, if not the control 
of public affairs, must and will be maintained. . . . 
Party divisions will and must ever exist." 10 The south- 
ern Whig party had been composed from the start of 
factions which, although apparently incongruous, were 
all essentially conservative. The state rights men 
sought protection for the institutions of the South in 
general and for negro slavery as the peculiar founda- 
tion upon which they were based ; the nationalists were 
in favor of safeguarding existing rights, privileges, and 
conditions, North as well as South. On the whole, the 
coalition of the two elements was a natural political 

10 Letter of Dec. i, Nashville Republican Banner, Dec. 22, 1852. 

The Savannah Republican, Nov. 6, 1852, commented on the news of 
Scott's defeat. " Whig principles and Whig minorities still exist. 
The former are, in our opinion, the only foundation stones of wise 
political structures, and minorities are the materials from which majori- 
ties are constructed. You may call the party Whig or Conservative, or 
what you will, Democratic rule will always give occasion for the 
formation of some party to arrest its destructive and disorganizing ten- 
dencies." 



282 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

move. 11 The effect of it was that all but the irreconcil- 
able state rights men were gradually won over to the 
larger view of conservatism and to latitudinarian views. 
It would seem difficult to understand how slave-hold- 
ers would be benefited by northern national conserva- 
tism, especially after the northern Whigs had estab- 
lished a reputation for anti-slavery propensities. Ex- 
cept in the matter of the external relations of the coun- 
try, where both opposed annexation, fillibustering, and 
intervention, the latter becoming a moot point at the 
time of Kossuth's visit to the United States in 185 1, 
the Whigs North and South had to face different prob- 
lems as conservatives. In the North, the attack came 
from within, from local opponents who could be com- 
batted from the ranks of the party. For the South, 
however, the attack came largely from without, from 
opponents in the northern states, men enrolled in the 
ranks of either party. Southern Whig conservatism 
protected the established institutions, ideas, and tradi- 
tions of the North, while northern Whig conservatism 
would seem, at first glance, to offer no guarantee to the 
peculiar institution of the South. The southerners, 
however, did not feel that such was the actual situa- 
tion. They felt that the northern conservatives needed 
their support against "the centrifugal tendencies of 
locof ocoism " too much for that. This was pointed out 
by Cabell in the exciting days that preceded the com- 
promise acts of 1850. Commenting on the devotion of 
northerners to the Union, he declared, " To you it [the 

11 In 1852 a stranger combination than this was proposed when there 
was a possibility that the extreme state rights men and the Whigs in 
Alabama and Georgia might unite in common cause against the Demo- 
crats. Cf. Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence; Montgomery 
Alabama Journal, March, 1852; Mobile Advertiser,. Feb. 20, 1852. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 283 

Union] may be necessary to save you from the effects 
of Socialism, Agrarianism, Fanny Wrightism, Radical- 
ism, Dorrism, and Abolitionism. The conservatism of 
slavery may be necessary to save you from the thousand 
destructive isms infecting the social organization of 
your section '!" Many northern Whigs — the " silver 
grey " or " cotton " Whigs in particular — saw the rea- 
sonableness of the expectation that they would defend 
the institution of slavery from the hostile attacks of the 
abolition agitator. 

The southern disunion movement attempted in the 
later forties was staunchly opposed by the southern 
Whigs, who with singular unanimity sustained the com- 
promise measures and defeated their enemies on the 
secession issue. Hot-headed nullifiers of the 1832 
period and others who had not thought it treason at 
that time to calculate the value of the Union became 
the leaders of the cohorts that had recently come to its 
rescue. This was clear proof of their conservatism and 
of their nationalism. But in their zeal for the Union 
they had at times laid aside or belittled the party line 
and cooperated with a wing of their traditional oppo- 
nents. The Union movement was demoralizing, Whig 
measures had become obsolete, and fellowship with 
their northern allies had become less desirable. United 
on the Georgia platform of 1850, their position on the 
sectional issue agreed substantially with that of the 
Democrats except as to the constitutional basis and the 

12 Cabell on March 5, 1850, Cong. Globe, 31 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 
242. In the course of his speech he stated, " On all questions, except 
this of slavery, they [northern Whigs] do constitute the conservative 
body of the North; and on this they are more reliable than the north- 
ern Democratic party ". Ibid., 239. Two years later he had changed 
his mind and concluded a similar statement with the words, " and 
upon that they have run as wild as wild can be ". 



284 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

desirability of the remedy proposed. A number of 
state rights Whigs joined the Democrats on the seces- 
sion issue, while many Union Whigs were attracted 
by the greater soundness of the northern Democrats. 
Most of them, however, felt that they could never join 
the Democratic party, for they regarded its principles 
as hostile to the true interests of the people. The eco- 
nomic and social as well as the party line separated 
them from their traditional opponents. 

After the election of 1852 the southern Whigs occu- 
pied an isolated position ; they held little communication 
with the remnant of the northern wing and were con- 
tent to deal with local political issues. The Milledge- 
ville Southern Recorder undoubtedly expressed the sen- 
timents of many when, late in 1853, under the caption, 
" A National Party — its Basis — its Aims ", it pro- 
nounced the virtual dissolution of the two old " pseudo- 
national " political organizations and recommended that 
the true friends of the Union and the constitution band 
together and keep together, " it matters not under what 
name, so their principles and aims are one and indivis- 
ible". It proposed a series of principles, strongly 
assertive of devotion to the Union, with federal rela- 
tions properly adjusted to assure the rights of the states 
and with an end of all sectional agitation. 13 This prop- 
osition contained nothing more than what Stephens 
and others had been preaching for two years, but now 
the situation was such that the demand had become 
fairly general. A party was shortly to make its way 
into the South and to commend itself to the support of 
old Whigs on just such a basis. Meantime they avoided 
a factious opposition to the Pierce administration and 

13 Jackson Flag of the Union, Dec. 30, 1853. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 285 

were as generous with their expressions of praise as 
with signs of disapproval. 

The sectional repose which the southern Whigs had 
always eloquently advocated and which they had been 
largely instrumental in securing, was suddenly dis- 
turbed by the introduction and passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill in the first session of Congress under the 
new administration. Though the credit or blame for 
the success of the measure which effected the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise restriction against slavery 
in the northern portion of the territory acquired by the 
Louisiana purchase is properly assignable to the Dem- 
ocratic members, northern and southern, the Whigs 
from the slave states played an important part in the 
process of placing it on the statute book. Southerners 
of both parties were in substantial agreement on the 
slavery question, but there were always political con- 
siderations that were recognized by enough party men 
to prevent unanimity upon any practical proposition 
that might come up. So it was in this case, but, inas- 
much as the party tie had become manifestly weaker, 
it is evident that the majority of the Whigs were pri- 
marily influenced by the interests of their section and 
that as a result the sectional line again became strong 
enough to prevent a real division on any other basis. 

On the sixteenth of January, twelve days after the 
report of Senator Douglas from the committee on the 
territories, which, with the bill introduced, announced 
the doctrine of non-intervention and declared the Mis- 
souri Compromise line inoperative and void, as being 
inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention, 
Senator Dixon, Clay's successor, presented an amend- 
ment which explicitly provided for the repeal of the 



286 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

congressional slavery restriction that had stood for 
over a third of a century. 14 His urgent advocacy of 
this step forced Douglas to embody a similar amend- 
ment in the substitute bill which he brought in on Jan- 
uary 23. Dixon doubtless saw in this an opportunity 
to break the rule according to which the Democrats 
claimed greater soundness on the slavery question be- 
cause they always assumed more advanced ground in 
its defence. A month later, at an early stage in the 
consideration of the bill in the Senate, Badger of 
North Carolina announced, upon the authority given 
by southern Whig senators in a caucus over the bill, 
that the measure met the unanimous approval of his 
colleagues. 15 Senator Bell of Tennessee, however, was 
from the start only lukewarm, and though he for a time 
hesitated to break with the southern members, he even- 
tually came out in opposition not only to the various 
subordinate features of the measure but even to the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. His was the only 
vote in the Senate against the Senate bill, although 
Clayton of Deleware, who was absent at the late hour 
when the vote was taken, later asked leave to record 
his vote in the negative because of his opposition to the 

14 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 175. 

15 This caucus on Feb. 15 was called to counteract the influence ef 
the attitude of the National Intelligencer against the bill. A resolution 
was adopted disapproving the course of that journal and declaring that 
it did not truly represent the opinion of the Whig party of the South; 
a committee was appointed to confer with the editors, and Badger was 
requested to state in his speech on the following day that the southern 
Whigs were a unit in favor of the bill. Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 
755-76o, 902, 937-941 ; cf. reports of New York Courier and Enquirer 
and Washington Star, in Savannah Republican, Feb. 23, 1854; Toombs 
to Wm. M. Burwell, Feb. 3, 1854, Burwell MSS. 

Badger was the author of that amendment which was later inserted 
as a guarantee that the bill in repealing the Missouri Compromise would 
not revive the old Louisiana laws that protected slavery in that domain. 
Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 520. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 287 

squatter sovereignty feature. Bayard, the other Dela- 
ware senator, became totally indifferent, if not opposed 
to the bill before the final vote on May 25, when he ab- 
stained from voting. 18 In the House, where a skillful 
manoeuvre by Stephens finally brought the measure to 
a vote, over one-third of the southern Whigs voting 
opposed the passage of the bill." 

The arguments of the southern Whig advocates of 
the measure did not differ materially from those of the 
Democrats with whom they were cooperating. The 
great principles that were declared to lie at the root of 
the bill were those of non-intervention and popular sov- 
ereignty, making it the logical outcome of the compro- 
mise of 1850. It was regarded as a long delayed act 
of justice to the South, one which it was unbecoming 
in a representative of a southern state to refuse. They 
were not confident that any positive advantages would 
accrue to it by the actual extension of slavery to the 
new territories; but they saw in the point at issue a 
question of principle, one which tended to array the 
free-soilers in solid ranks against the South, and with 

18 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 775-779. Clayton and Bell voted 
against the measure. 

17 Hunt, the only Louisiana Whig member, Rogers and Puryear of 
the three Whigs from North Carolina, and Taylor, Cullom, Bugg, and 
Etheridge, or two-thirds of the Tennessee Whig delegation. On the 
other hand, Stephens and Reese of Georgia and Abercrombie of Ala- 
bama were more independents than Whigs, while the four Whigs from 
Missouri had a peculiarly local interest that required their support. 
This left only six others for the bill. Four southern Whigs were not 
present at the final vote. Of these four at least one (Franklin of 
Maryland) opposed the bill. House Journal, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 923- 
924. See also Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 1254; Whig Almanac, 
1855, 32-33. 

The contemporary newspapers, the Cong. Globe, Rhodes, and Von 
Hoist all give incorrect analyses of the vote. See Nashville Republican 
Banner, May 31, 1854; New York Tribune, in Rhodes, History of the 
United States, I, 489; Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 755. 



288 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

a successful outcome in sight they welcomed the 
struggle in their firm belief in the healthy moral effect 
of such a victory of principle. 18 

It is noteworthy that the Cass-Douglas doctrine of 
" squatter sovereignty ", which recognized the inherent 
right of the people of a territory to govern themselves 
and hence, through the territorial legislature, to pass on 
the question of slavery either to establish or to prohibit 
it, received almost no support from southern Whigs 
in either house. 19 Badger argued that Congress had 
plenary powers of legislation over the territories and 
refused to acknowledge " directly or indirectly, the 
existence of this squatter sovereignty ". He and Bay- 
ard both insisted that the people of a territory had 
only a derivative or delegated power of legislation 
arising from an act of Congress. 20 The friends of the 
bill passed over this feature in silence, claiming that 
the great principle asserted was the principle of non- 
intervention, which rendered the unfair and unconsti- 
tutional congressional restriction inoperative, null, and 
void. Senator Toombs of Georgia held to the views 
of popular sovereignty which he and most southern 
Whigs had applied to California in 1849 and 1850, and 
hence declared that " this sovereignty of right which 
is the birthright of every American citizen . . . may, 

18 A. H. Stephens to Wm. W. Burwell, May 7, 1854, Stephens MSS. 

19 Senators Pearce and Pratt of Maryland and Benjamin of Louisiana 
seem to have come nearest in the Senate to conceding this point. The 
whole Missouri delegation in the House maintained the doctrine of 
squatter sovereignty or " territorial sovereignty ", as Oliver, one of 
them, termed it. See Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 728; 
Missouri Republican, Feb. 19, 1854. 

20 Ready of Tennessee held exactly the same views. His conclusion, 
like that of Bayard, was that if the Missouri Compromise was unconsti- 
tutional, squatter sovereignty could not possibly be constitutional. 
Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 745. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 289 

nay, it must remain in abeyance until the society be- 
comes sufficiently strong and stable to be entitled to its 
full expression as a sovereign State. But yet even in 
abeyance this sovereignty does not belong to the General 
Government, and its exercise is a naked and unmixed 
despotism "* Senator Dawson, his colleague, applied 
these views to the slavery question and asserted : " Then 
when the territory has sufficient population to be 
formed into a State, it shall come into the Union with 
a republican form of government, with or without slav- 
ery, as its people may decide. Is not this the principle 
involved in this bill?" 22 

Many were bold and outspoken in their rejection of 
the theory of squatter sovereignty for that of popular 
sovereignty. Among these were Senator Clayton, of 
Delaware, and Zollikoffer, the representative of the 
Nashville district of Tennessee. The former had 
ceased his support of the bill on the ground that it 
contained the squatter sovereignty doctrine, which he 
declared was a complete abandonment of the whole idea 
of non-intervention, which was claimed to be the under- 
lying principle of the bill. 23 Zollikoffer, however, sup- 
ported the bill as not giving countenance to Cass's 
heretical doctrine. 24 He claimed that the sovereignty 
of France over Louisiana had been transferred to the 
general government but, as the constitution restricted 
the power of Congress over slavery, that portion of the 

21 ibid., 347. 

22 Ibid., 304. 

23 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 550. 

24 " I am aware that some of the friends of the bill think that 
what I regard as exceptional in squatter sovereignty is embraced in the 
bill. Still the large majority think with me; and I cannot consent to 
lose the chance of repealing the unjust act of 1820 because some fancy 
that they see squatter sovereignty in the bill." Id., Appendix, 586. 



2QO WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

supreme power or sovereignty " lies dormant until the 
people come to act for themselves in framing State 
constitutions, and then it passes to them. If Congress, 
then, has not the power to do this, it cannot give to a 
Territorial Legislature the power to do it. The Terri- 
torial Legislature can exercise no powers of sovereignty 
which Congress do [sic] not confer upon them ", 25 

Most of the southern opponents of the bill endeav- 
ored to establish their opposition on sound southern 
grounds. They called attention to the orthodox south- 
ern view which asserted the right of the slave-holder 
to carry his property into the organized territories 
without interference by any power or in any manner 
until a state government was organized ; they declared 
that the power of a territorial legislature to establish 
or to prohibit slavery was inconsistent not only with 
this view but even with the principle of non-interven- 
tion upon which the bill purported to be based. They 
refused to abandon this position to be handed over to 
the " tender mercies of squatter sovereignty ", 28 Tay- 
lor of Tennessee asserted that the Missouri Compro- 
mise was not inconsistent with the doctrine of popular 
sovereignty, which he denned as the doctrine " that the 
Territories, when they have passed their minority, and, 
as States, form their constitutions, at that moment 
assume the garb and attributes of sovereignty, and 
may then and thereafter establish and regulate their 
own domestic institutions ". He denounced the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise as " a direct violation of 
the great republican principle of popular sovereignty". 27 

23 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 586. 

26 Etheridge of Tennessee, Cong. Globe 1 , 33 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 
836. 

27 Ibid., 815. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 291 

His colleague, Cullom, complained that " to render this 
power of ' squatter sovereignty ' complete, this bill 
deprives Congress of any supervisory control over the 
acts of the Territorial Legislature ; whereas such con- 
trol was retained in the territorial acts of 1850 ", which 
the bill purported to follow. 25 When, however, the bill 
did contain a provision which required that the laws 
of the territorial legislature should be sent to the gen- 
eral government for approval, Clayton took occasion 
to point out that this would allow any man in either 
branch of Congress to move to repeal or to disallow 
any measure submitted, which would make further in- 
terference and further agitation of the slavery ques- 
tion in Congress inevitable. This made it, he held, a 
complete abandonment of the principle of non-inter- 
ference. 29 Bell raised a pointed question : " Suppose 
the first Legislature shall admit slavery, may not the 
next abolish it, and thus keep up a perpetual struggle ; 
while Congress, at the same time, may be agitated by 
questions of further intervention ? " 30 

The admitted failure of the advocates of the bill to 
harmonize on the principle of squatter sovereignty was 
pointed out by the Whig opponents, who called atten- 
tion to the varied interpretations placed upon the meas- 
ure — " the Babel-like confusion of opinions ". " The 
language of the bill is so subtle, circumlocutory, and 
tautological ", said Cullom, " that it seems to have been 
intended to bear a construction to suit any meridian." " 
" This [bill] ", stated Franklin of Maryland, " I believe 
to be intentionally equivocal and obscure in phrase- 

28 Ibid., 541. 
23 Ibid., 391. 
30 Ibid., 939. 
^Ibid., 541; cf. 815. 



292 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

ology. I believe it to be framed with a full knowledge 
that gentlemen from the North would put one con- 
struction upon it, and gentlemen from the South an- 
other, upon matters of vital importance. ... Its 
phraseology is such that the most astute lawyers cannot 
understand it, and no two men whom you meet in the 
street can agree upon its true meaning." 32 

The Badger amendment, which annulled whatever 
remained of the old Louisiana law recognizing slavery, 
was denounced as a " dangerous and unwarranted in- 
tervention by Congress ... in order to give full and 
free scope to the principle of ' squatter sovereignty ' ". 3G 
Franklin of Maryland deplored this amendment as an 
act of congressional intervention which prevented the 
restoration of the territory to the status it had occupied 
with reference to slavery at the time of its acquisition. 
" If the principle of non-intervention is to be bona fide 
the controlling principle in the organization of these 
territories, I aver that, to be consistent, they must be 
restored to their original status) and if the repeal of 
the act of 1820 does not, proprio vigore, revive that 
status, it ought to be declared to be revived by special 
enactment." M 

Nearly all the southern Whig members favored the 
recall of the Missouri Compromise as an unjust and 
unconstitutional measure. Repeal on the principle of 
the non-intervention doctrine was quite consistent with 
their attitude both before and since the compromise 
measures of 1850. But as consistency is not an unfail- 
ing rule in politics, considering the influence of the 

32 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 421. 

33 Speech of Cullom, ibid., 541; cf. that of Bell, 939, and of Taylor, 815. 
^Ibid., 419. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 293 

conservative principle with southern Whigs, they would 
be expected to look carefully to the ultimate conse- 
quences of any such step in determining their position. 
With most southern Whigs, however, this consideration 
was overborne by the necessity of showing as sin- 
cere a devotion to the cause of slavery as their Dem- 
ocratic rivals. 

Southern Whig senators admitted that the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise might cause agitation and 
excitement. Dixon and Clayton justified their support 
of the repeal only on the ground that the proposition 
came from the North. " I did not ask for it ", declared 
the latter, " I would not have proposed it ; and I may 
regret that it was offered, because I do not believe that 
it will repay us for the agitation and irritation it has 
cost. But can a Senator, whose constituents hold slaves, 
be expected to resist and refuse what the North thus 
freely offers us as a measure due to us ? " * Senator 
Bayard, his colleague, stood wavering at the parting 
of the way, uncertain as to what course to take. On 
the abstract question he favored the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise restriction, but he feared that, in- 
stead of allaying agitation, it would lead to greater 
anti-slavery fanaticism. 38 The Tennessee members who 
opposed the bill, together with Hunt of Louisiana, all 
deprecated a repeal as a breach of faith that would lead 
to a dangerous renewal of sectional discord and dis- 
sension. Cullom praised the Missouri Compromise and 
the patriots who had enacted it. " The bill now before 
this House ", he complained, " seeks to repudiate their 
plighted faith, and to pull down the work of their 

33 Ibid., 383; cf. 141. 
38 Ibid., 775-776. 



294 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

hands, which has stood as a monument of their wisdom 
and patriotism for thirty-four years; which has been 
cheerfully acquiesced in by all sections of the Confed- 
eracy, and for which the pure men of 1820 have been 
canonized in the hearts of the American people. This 
great measure of pacification is now, for mere party 
purposes, and party and personal advancement, to be 
trampled under foot/' 87 Senator Bell expressed him- 
self strongly against the policy of disturbing the Mis- 
souri Compromise and testified that every southern 
senator with whom he had discussed the matter, except 
Toombs, had deprecated the introduction of this meas- 
ure of repeal. 38 He himself questioned the constitu- 
tional power of Congress to enact the Missouri Com- 
promise, but declared that " it was accepted by the 
South, and acquiesced in as a measure of compromise 
between the North and the South, and its constitution- 
ality was sanctioned by President Monroe and his cab- 
inet ". 39 He thought its repeal unfortunate to the coun- 
try and mischievous in its tendencies. " What practi- 
cal advantage or benefit to the country generally, or to 
the South in particular ", he asked, " will the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise secure ? " *° Hunt of Louisi- 
ana, in explaining that there could be no gain com- 
mensurate with the risk of disaster that would be 
incurred, reached ground that was directly opposed to 
the traditional southern stand in the sectional contro- 
versy. He called attention to the general opinion that 
the climate and soil of the new territories were not 

37 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 538. 

38 Ibid., 939. Senator Badger, on the eve of the Civil War, called 
his vote " the worst vote I ever gave in my life ". Raleigh Register, 
Oct. 17, i860. 

39 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 413. 
*° Ibid. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 295 

adapted to the great staples of the South and that the 
constitutions organizing state governments would 
probably provide for the prohibition of slavery, and 
then boldly declared : 

We, of the South, already have lands sufficient for culture 
by our slaves beyond any number they can possibly increase 
to in a long series of ages; and it is well known that the 
policy of the country is restrictive of the increase of slaves. 
. . . Why then this lust for new land not wanted and not 
capable of being used ? . . . There are those who desire that the 
slaveholding States should acquire additional territory, in the 
belief or hope „ of effecting and preserving a balance or 
equilibrium between them and the non-slaveholding States. 
But this is af vain and delusive hope. 

The fact cannot be disguised, that slavery in our country 
cannot keep pace with the growth of the white race. 41 

Whigs in the South were divided, even before the 
issue of the Nebraska bill was raised, into two wings, 
one composed of those who, politically, were still first 
and foremost party men, therefore essentially national- 
istic in spirit and strongly anti-Democratic, and the 
other composed of those who, largely animated by a 
sense of devotion to the institution of slavery, were 
willing to lay aside party considerations to further the 
rights of their section. Inasmuch as pride and faith in 
the Whig party had of late declined in the South, the 
latter class undoubtedly constituted a significant minor- 
ity. This division showed itself everywhere, except 
perhaps in Missouri, 42 soon after Congress took up the 
proposed measure providing territorial governments 
for Kansas and Nebraska, when one group came to 
deprecate and the other to advocate its passage. 

41 Ibid., 437. 

42 The Missouri Republican of March 23, 1854, stated that every 
Whig paper in the state was for the Nebraska bill. 



2Q6 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

For a time both wings looked with suspicion upon 
the circumstances of the introduction of the territorial 
bill, as Douglas was known to be an ambitious candi- 
date for the Democratic nomination in 1856, 43 and 
especially as the announcement followed that the sup- 
port of the measure was to be regarded as a test of 
Democratic orthodoxy. 44 Many Whigs, however, hes- 
itated to announce a definite attitude toward the pro- 
posed piece of legislation. 45 A few zealous party organs 
like the New Orleans Bulletin, denounced " this Doug- 
las movement " as a bit of electioneering humbuggery 
to create political capital in the South; it hoped that 
it would not be taken up by the southern representa- 
tives on the ground that " in no possible event, immedi- 
ate, contingent, or remote," could its success benefit the 
South. 46 The Savannah Republican pointed to the 
opposition of conservative northern journals and issued 
a " Warning to the South " ; 4T the Raleigh Register 
doubted the utility of disturbing the Missouri Compro- 
mise but reserved the right to revise its views ; * while 

43 Mobile Advertiser, Feb. 16, 1854. The Richmond Whig on Jan. 
25, 1854, spurned " that tricky demagogue, Douglas ". In a little over a 
fortnight, however, it commended his " disinterested fearlessness ". 

44 Nashville Republican Banner, Feb. 1 ; cf. Washington Union, Jan. 
22, 26, 29, etc., 1854. 

" It is a little curious to notice the alacrity with which many of the 
Whig papers of this State jump out in opposition to the Territorial bill 
for the organization of the two territories of Kansas and Nebraska, 
evidently because it has been brought forward under the auspices of a 
Democratic Senator — Stephen A. Douglas — and is understood to re- 
ceive the support and sanction of the Administration." Wilmington 
Journal, Feb. 21, 1854. 

43 The Nashville Union, Feb. 12, called attention to the silence ot 
the Whig papers of the South. See also Mobile Register, Feb. 17; 
Kosciusko (Miss.) Southern Sun, March 25, 1854. 

48 Jan. 27; cf. Feb. 10, 1854. 

47 Jan. 28, 1854. 

48 Feb. 1, 1854. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 297 

the Nashville Republican Banner contented itself with 
criticising the position of its rival at home and the 
central Democratic organ at Washington. 49 Within a 
month or two most Whig journals announced that, as 
the issue of repeal of the Missouri Compromise restric- 
tion had been made, satisfied that there could be but 
one sentiment among southern men as to the principle 
involved, they were ready to take their stand upon the 
side in favor of repeal. 50 Little was said, however, in 
praise of the bill itself. 

This was the attitude of the majority of the rank and 
file of the party. The Whig members in the state legis- 
latures of Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi joined 
with the Democrats in adopting resolutions which ap- 
proved of the principle of non-intervention in the Ne- 
braska territorial bill, 51 while the Tennessee senate, in 
which the Democrats had the barest possible majority, 
took similar action with practical unanimity. 52 The 
only Whig state convention of the year, that of the 
North Carolina Whigs prefatory to the local guberna- 

49 March i, 2, 1854. 

50 Savannah Republican, Feb. 25; Nashville Republican Banner, 
March 7, 1854. The Mobile Advertiser, Feb. 18, held that non-interven- 
tion was the true doctrine, while the Missouri restriction was uncon- 
stitutional and unjust. It added: " If the North .... will consent 
in direct terms to repeal the Missouri line, we think it the policy and 
duty of Southern men to vote for the measure, but we protest against 
the South being placed in a false light in the matter, in other words, 
being made to appear the aggressor instead of the recipient." 

5X National Intelligencer, Feb. 27, March 18, April 1, 4, 1854. 

52 Nashville Union, March 5, in Washington Union, March 14, 1854. 

Lucas, a Whig member of the lower house, offered a Nebraska reso- 
lution commending the position of Senator Jones, giving as his reason: 
" The Whig party has always suffered the Democratic party to get the 
advantage of them on slavery — they had held back, afraid to take posi- 
tion until their adversaries had gained all the benefit of prompt and 
speedy action, and in this they had been beaten and ought to have 
been beaten as long as they pursued such a policy." Nashville Repub- 
lican Banner, March 7. All such resolutions in the house were tabled. 



298 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

torial campaign, declared " in favor of the doctrine of 
non-intervention by Congress on the subject of slavery 
within the territories of the United States now held or 
acquired ". M 

Most Whigs, however, were reported to be indiffer- 
ent as to the outcome of the movement. 6 * Few could 
develop real enthusiasm for an abstract principle, 
which, whatever it might have meant to the South a 
quarter of a century earlier, might never in the future 
bring any practical advantages to it. Apprehensions 
regarding a renewed agitation of the slavery question 
in Congress soon developed. 65 For this reason the New 
Orleans Bulletin strongly deplored the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, and subscribed fully to the 
views of Hunt, the Louisiana Whig congressman. 66 On 
this ground Botts denounced the Nebraska bill in his 
characteristically vigorous and extravagant style. 57 
Crittenden of Kentucky, one of the sages of the party, 
favored the principle of the Nebraska bill over the rule 

68 Wilmington Journal, Feb. 24; National Intelligencer, March 14, 
1854. 

64 New Orleans Bee, March 24. Public meetings in favor of the 
Nebraska bill were thinly attended and the proceedings marked by little 
evidence of enthusiasm. Cf. National Intelligencer, Feb. 25, 1854. 

55 Mobile Advertiser, Jan. 17, 1854. A large number of Wilmington 
Whigs wrote to their senator, Clayton, on Feb. 13: "This Bill, odious 
in principle, uncalled for by any political exigency, and if passed, open- 
ing the flood-gates to future agitation on the Slavery question, we 
earnestly call upon you to oppose with all the power of argument, 
eloquence and moral influence you possess." Clayton MSS. 

86 Feb. 18, April 6, 1854; cf. above, p. 295. 

" " As a southern man and as a national man, I should like to see 
this misshapen and ill-begotten monster killed. . . . Let the demon of 
discord be strangled in its birth! .... Let every lover of his country 
and of its peace, and harmony, and good will, and honor, and good 
faith, and durability, turn from it with loathsome and shuddering 
disgust, as they would avoid a pestilence or the plague I Let him treat 
it as a disturber of his country's peace, honor, welfare, perpetuity! " 
Washington Union, Feb. 17, 1854. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 299 

fixed by the Missouri Compromise; as, however, the 
latter was regarded as a sort of landmark in the politi- 
cal progress of the nation, and was, in his opinion, never 
superseded or abrogated, he believed that its repeal 
without the sincere concurrence of the North would* 
be productive of serious agitations and disturbances. 58 
Many feared that its repeal would result in eventual 
damage to the South by causing a great accession of 
strength to the free-soil faction and would, by exposing 
the South to the charge of breach of faith and wilful 
violation of a great national compromise, arm aboli- 
tionism with new weapons against the South. 59 After 
all, declared a thoughtful and observant southern Whig 
in analyzing the situation, " What the South wants — 
and all that it now wants — is quiet on the slave ques- 
tion. " ." 

There were, moreover, features of the bill which the 
Whigs at home relished no more than their representa- 
tives at Washington. They, too, objected to the squat- 
ter sovereignty construction. The Montgomery Ala- 
bama Journal on April 8 declared that this was receding 
from the Georgia platform, abandoning the very feat- 
ure of the Utah and New Mexico bills of 1850. " Let 
the South but once admit that a Territorial legislature 
may abolish slavery ", wrote a correspondent of the 

58 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, II, 102-103. 

At the public dinner given to Crittenden after his election as United 
States senator, the toastniaster announced that he had a letter from a 
distinguished and venerable Whig, Adam Beatty, in which the latter 
urged the country to stand by the Missouri Compromise. This an- 
nouncement was received with loud applause. National Intelligencer, 
Feb. 24, 1854. 

59 Fayetteviile Observer, Jan. 30, in Wilmington Journal, Feb. 27. 
A few months later, it was pointed out that these fears had not been 
without a foundation, Mobile Advertiser, May 17, 1854. 

80 S. S. Nicholas to Crittenden, Feb. 5, Crittenden MSS. 



300 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

Alexandria Gazette, " and then will its area have been 
definitely settled and its acres ascertained." 61 " Strike 
the [Badger] proviso and the ' squatter sovereignty ' 
clauses out of these bills ", urged a Georgia journal, 
" and we are their warm advocates ; let them remain 
and we would not give the value of a feather for all the 
advantages the South will ever gain from them." M 
The Nashville Banner came out in even bolder tones : 
" Decidedly, however, as we are in favor of the repeal 
— now that the issue has been made — we could not con- 
sistently with our views of the constitutional rights of 
the South vote for it, if clogged with the recognition 
of the principle of Squatter Sovereignty. If that ' Tro- 
jan Horse ' be once admitted into the citadel of South- 
ern Rights, there will never be another slave State 
formed out of any territory now owned, or which may 
hereafter be acquired by the United States." fl3 Many, 
however, were content to explain that their support of 
the bill gave no sanction to the squatter sovereignty 
doctrine. 04 

As the possibility of a dual interpretation of the bill 
was aired in debate and through the press the measure 
began to lose ground in the South and to develop oppo- 
sition, especially among Whigs. The course of the 
National Intelligencer in opposing the measure gradu- 
ally won the approval of a considerable portion of its 
southern subscribers. 65 A growing sentiment in Ten- 

61 April 8, in National Intelligencer, April n, 1854. 

e3 Griffin American Union, April 13, in National Intelligencer, April 
18, 1854. 

63 Nashville Republican Banner, March 7; cf. Fayetteville Observer, 
April 3, 1854. 

04 Tallahassee Sentinel, April 11, in National Intelligencer, April 18, 
1854. 

65 See the letters to the National Intelligencer, passim, especially the 
two in the issue of June 24. One of them gave this testimony: " For 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 301 

nessee and Kentucky sustained the position of Senator 
Bell and the other southern Whigs who refused to sup- 
port the bill. 66 The editor of the Nashville Banner, who 
had previously declared himself in favor of the repeal 
of the congressional restriction, now asked, after a 
canvass among the cotton merchants and other citizens 
of central Tennessee, " Who wants the Missouri Com- 
promise repealed ? " stating that he had failed to hear 
the first expression of anxiety to see this accomplished. 67 
A month later he declared that if the bill passed it would 
be only because it was held up as a Democratic measure 
in support of which Democrats were expected to yield 
up personal opinions and preferences. 68 The Clarksville 
Chronicle, having stated that there was no division be- 

thirty years I have been an attentive observer of politics and politi- 
cians, and to some extent have mingled in the contests of my state. I 
claim to know Georgia and her public men as well as another. With 
the intelligent and reflecting portion of the old Whigs, your course on 
the Nebraska and Kansas bill needs no vindication; you may rely upon 

truth and your acknowledged conservatism to sustain you I 

have talked with many intelligent gentlemen on the Nebraska bill and 
I assure you that notwithstanding all, like myself, agree that it would 
have been better that the line of 36 ° 30' had never been adopted, yet 
they seriously question the expediency of its repeal." 

66 Louisville Journal, in Nashville Republican Banner, April 27; 
Paris (Ky.) Western Citizen, April 21, in National Intelligencer, April 
25; Franklin Weekly Review, in Nashville Republican Banner, April 8; 
Knoxville Whig, in id., April 21; Clarksville Chronicle, in id., April 
27; Maury Intelligencer, in id.., May 24, 1854. In Virginia, the War- 
renton Flag and the Alexandria Gazette could not see that the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, with the enactment of squatter sovereignty, 
would do the South any good, except as an empty triumph. National In- 
telligencer, April 8. R. E. Scott, a prominent Warrenton Whig, came 
out with a lengthy and elaborate repudiation of the Nebraska bill, id., 
May 1 1 . 

07 April 7, 1854. 

68 May 6. " It is a Democratic measure, brought forward by a 
Democratic aspirant for the Presidency, and sustained by a Democratic 
Administration; and from party considerations Southern as well as 
Northern Democrats may vote and pass it, who, but for those considera- 
tions, would not ' touch it with a forty foot pole '." 



302 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tween Whigs of the North and South, continued: 
" There is little danger that the Southern Whigs will 
enter the lists as the champions of the measure; they 
may silently acquiesce in the passage of the bill, but 
cannot be made to view it as a measure promising peace 
to the country or advantages to the South." 6e The 
New Orleans Bulletin, the leader of the opposition in 
the Gulf states, came out in an editorial entitled " South- 
ern Sentiment and the Nebraska Humbug", which 
declared its belief " that if the struggle on the Nebraska 
bill could continue two or three months longer, the real 
sentiment of the Southern people would become so 
unmistakably known that most of the representatives 
would drop the demagogical abortion as a thing not fit 
to be touched ". 70 Even in Missouri, a portion of the 
Whigs came to oppose the measure. 71 

Among the Whigs of the slave states the passage of 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill occasioned practically no 
excitement. 72 Most of them regarded it as simply doing 

69 In Nashville Republican Banner, April 27, 1854. 

70 May 24, 1854. 

71 When, in December, the Whig members of the Missouri legislature 
met in caucus and adopted a platform, they agreed to support no man 
for speaker or United States senator not in favor of " acquiescing in " 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, especially the part on the Missouri Com- 
promise repeal. A correspondent of the Missouri Republican, Dec. 
30, explained the language " acquiescing in " as essential to the har- 
mony and unity of the Whig party: " You are not ignorant of the 
fact that very many of the oldest, soundest, most consistent Whigs 
of this state were opposed to the Nebraska bill when it was pending 
before Congress. They thought the true policy of the South was to 
keep western territory open as long as possible without organization, 
from a fear that they would eventually become free States and sur- 
round Missouri on all sides." He explained the position of the Whig 
politicians for the bill as necessary because Benton took the opposite 
stand. 

72 Stephens's statement, made six years later, to the contrary notwith- 
standing: " Never was an act of Congress so generally and so unan- 
imously hailed with delight at the South." May 9, i860. Johnston and 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 303 

justice to the South on the basis of non-intervention — 
a barren victory ; 73 some, however, regarded it as a 
needless reaffirmation of the principle of the compro- 
mise of 1850 with objectionable features that made it 
a doubtful benefit to the South. 74 Those who had op- 
posed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as an 
impolitic, if not unjust step, rested content with a repe- 
tition of their previous warning against a renewal of 
anti-slavery agitation and fanaticism. 75 When squatter 
sovereignty came to be given a practical test and the 
South, despite the general feeling which prevailed out- 
side of Missouri that slavery could not thrive in the 
newly organized territories, took up the contest for 
control in Kansas, the southern Whigs — so far as they 
could then be called by that name — like the Democrats, 
considered it to the interest of the entire South that 
slavery should be extended into the region previously 
closed to it. 76 

To what extent consideration for the position of 
northern party associates had determined the course 
of those southern Whigs who opposed the Nebraska 
bill, it would be difficult to say. Members from the 
two sections had conferred together privately from the 



Browne, Life of A. H. Stephens, 360. Compare with this the statement 
of the Charleston Mercury, June 21: "By many it is regarded with 
indifference, by some openly opposed; while the mass look upon it as a 
thing of so little practical good that it is not worth the labor of an 
active struggle to maintain it." National Intelligencer, June 27, 1854. 

73 Macon Messenger, Milledgeville Southern Recorder, in National 
Intelligencer, June 7, 1854. 

74 The Georgia Union, May 27, considered it as a perfect triumph 
for the North, National Intelligencer, June 1, 1854. 

78 Id., June 24; New Orleans Bulletin, June 16, 1854. 

76 The New Orleans Bulletin, Oct. 18, 1854, indicated some dissent 
from this view, repeating the arguments advanced by Hunt in his speech 
against the Nebraska bill. See above, p. 295. 



304 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

earliest stage in the consideration of the bill. 77 It was 
even charged that Senator Bell's speech was intended 
to define his position acceptably to northern Whigs, 
since he was prominently mentioned as the Whig can- 
didate for the next presidency. 78 His early connec- 
tion, however, with the Douglas measure renders it 
improbable that he was actuated by any such motive. 
That certain of the southerners should prefer to con- 
tinue in harmony with the northern leaders, provided 
that the measure furnished any basis for common 
action, was only natural. The vast majority, how- 
ever, had no confidence in the northern wing as then 
constituted and had practically given up all hope of 
again acting with it. There was, therefore, absolutely 
no cooperation between the sectional wings of the 
party in Congress. Before there had been any debate 
or deliberation on the bill, the southern Whig senators 
had met in secret conclave with the old opponents of 
the party, as supporters of the proposed measure; they 
had even, without consultation with their northern 
brethren, held a separate caucus and authorized the 
announcement of their unanimity in favor of the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise. 79 Every northern Whig, 

77 " The moment this bill was laid on our tables I conferred with 
some southern Whigs on its dangerous consequences, should it be forced 
upon the country." Senator Wade of Ohio on May 25, Cong. Globe., 
33 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 764. 

78 Cf. Nashville Republican Banner, June 5, 1854. 

79 Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 940-948. Wade of Ohio, 
on the day before the final passage of the bill, explained the impor- 
tance of the course of the southern Whigs: " I have no doubt that the 
southern Whigs of the Senate, before entering on a scheme so unjust 
to the North, had made up their minds to sever forever all further 
connection with their northern brethren. No doubt the question was 
asked, what shall we do with the northern Whigs? Shall we consult 
them, or shall we cut them off from this great empire behind their 
backs? Shall we consign their inheritance to slavery before they 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 305 

however, in both houses, conservative as well as radical, 
had recorded his vote against this proposition. 

With the two wings of the party so completely at 
odds and with the declining hold of the party spirit 
over the Whigs in both sections, the passage of the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill was the death-blow to the na- 
tional Whig party. The Seward Whigs boldly repudi- 
ated all further connection with the Whigs of the 
South, who, they said, had rendered such connection 
impossible by having chosen " to join the common 
enemy in an unjust war upon the rights and honor of 
the North"; they accepted the issue tendered by the 
South, a sectional war for the mastery, and with agi- 
tation as the watchword, prepared for a desperate and 
deadly struggle between slavery and freedom. 80 Many 
of the northern conservatives, the " silver-grey " Whigs 
of New York and the nationalists of the other states, 
who had been warm and devoted friends of the South, 
now recognized that the day of compromises was ended 
by the Nebraska movement; they were forced by the 
character of the issue to abandon their southern 
friends, often to unite with the Sewardites. 

The southern Whigs were placed by this develop- 
ment in an extremely delicate situation. They saw that 
they could no longer act with the northern wing, 81 yet 

know it? All these questions were answered in the affirmative. They 
must have made up their minds to sever all further political connec- 
tion with us; and most effectively have they done it. After this I 
hope to hear no more of national parties. They have by their own act 
rendered such a thing impossible." Ibid., 764. 

80 Ibid., 764-765. Cf. Albany Register, the organ of the Fillmore 
conservatives, in Washington Union, May 1 1 ; also New York Tribune, 
May 20, 1854. 

81 The Savannah Republican as early as March 18 expressed the fear 
that this would be the result of the general opposition of northern 
Whigs to the bill. 



306 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

they had no enthusiasm for the course on which the 
South had embarked. Nor were they as a body at- 
tracted to the Democratic party. 82 In their quandary, the 
Florida central Whig organ, uncertain as to the ground 
upon which southern Whigs stood, asked the pointed 
question, " Where are we ? " and suggested that the 
Whig party of Florida " meet and consult together for 
the purpose of taking an observation ", 88 

But the Petersburg Intelligencer, one of the most 
thorough Whig papers in the South, had already come 
forward with a significant suggestion. As it believed 
that the two sections of the party were utterly antago- 
nistic and that further cooperation was an impossibility, 
it advised the holding of a southern Whig convention 
at some central point of the South " to consider of the 
policy and duty of the Whigs of the South ". It thought 
that if southern Whigs acted independently of the Dem- 
ocrats except on the slavery question, they would be 
able to exercise a wholesome influence upon the polit- 
ical development of the South and of the nation. 84 
While the proposal met with some approval from the 

82 The Augusta Constitutionalist and the Savannah Republican, Whig 
journals in a state where Whig and Democrat had often cooperated, 
held that there were " discordant and irreconcilable, elements of opin- 
ion ", " antagonisms of principle and prejudice ", that would prevent an 
amalgamation of southern Whigs and Democrats, even the Union 
Democrats. Thousands of Whigs, said the latter, " can never be 
brought to surrender up their judgments, or bow at the knees to the 
Gamaliel of Democracy, and take fresh lessons in the principles of the 
Government ". Savannah Republican, June 29, 1854. 

83 Washington Union, June 30, 1854. 

84 " The holding of such a convention as we propose may be termed 
sectional. Well, let it be so. It is sectional, and meant to be so. 
What are the northern Whigs now doing? Acting sectionally for the 
purpose of violating the constitution. Look at their votes on the 
Nebraska bill, and then see if it will lie in their mouths to rebuke 
the Whigs of the South for holding a sectional convention to devise* 
ways and means to protect the constitution from their own ruthless 
assaults." Quoted in Washington Union, June 3, 1854. 



KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 307 

party press, the Mobile Advertiser was able, before all 
had expressed an opinion on the matter, to present a 
list of over fifteen prominent journals which were op- 
posed to this scheme of sectionalizing the Whig party 
by driving out the northern Whigs, as " impolitic, un- 
called for and mischievous ", 85 And so, partly because 
of a revulsion against arranging the funeral rites of 
the defunct organization, partly through hope of its 
resurrection, the Whig party was refused extreme 
unction and the privilege of a decent burial. 

Among the many who were opposed to the organiza- 
tion of the southern Whigs on a permanently sectional 
basis was Stephens of Georgia. He, too, believed that 
they must " strike out a lead for themselves ", but he 
believed that it ought to be to secure a national or- 
ganization " on broad national, Republican principles " 
— on the principles of the compromise of 1850 and the 
Kansas-Nebraska act just passed — to which the na- 
tional men of both sections would be attracted : " Hun- 
dreds and thousands of Northern Whigs when they 
see this is our fixed determination will abandon the 
Seward ranks of the anti-slavery agitators. There is 
nothing that will tend so much to a speedy pacification 
of both parties North as a resolute purpose on our part 
to adhere to this course." He conferred with the other 
southern Whig members of Congress upon this plan 
and upon the political future. 86 To what extent he suc- 
ceeded in securing their concurrence is uncertain, but 
later events show that such an expedient could hardly 
have accomplished the results for which Stephens 
hoped. 

85 July 1, 9, 1854. 

86 Stephens to Wm. M. Burwell, June 26, 27, 1854, Stephens MSS. 



308 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

With Whig measures admittedly obsolete and with 
the Union issue removed from the field, little was left 
to distinguish Whig from Democrat even on the slavery 
question, except in the case of those who had laid 
themselves open to the charge of unsoundness. Even 
the editor of the New Orleans Bulletin became willing 
to admit that " the Whig party was killed off in No- 
vember, 1852 ", 87 as the Democrats had charged at the 
time. But this admission did not come until there 
was a reasonable certainty that a new organization, 
made up mainly of the anti-Democratic opposition ele- 
ments, had sufficiently taken form to warrant the belief 
that it could act as the fit successor of the Whig party. 
The new organization, which so suddenly came into 
strength and prominence, was a secret political party 
which developed out of a secret nativist order known 
to its members as the " Order of the Star Spangled 
Banner " or the " Order of the Sons of the Sires of 
'76 ". It was called the American party but, on account 
of the obligation of secrecy imposed upon its members 
concerning even the name,Jt came to be popularly and 
generally designated as the " Know Nothing " party. 

87 Oct. 18, 1854. 



CHAPTER X. 
Attempts at Reorganization, 1854-1861. 

The Know Nothing party was a revived form of 
Native Americanism, a movement which had made 
considerable headway in the middle forties but which 
had gradually lost its force as the sectional issue came 
to occupy the center of the political arena. It was in 
its political aspect a protest against the part which 
the foreign-born citizen was allowed to play, whether 
legally or fraudulently, in the practical workings of 
the American political system. 

Various considerations attracted the southern Whigs 
to the new organization, which for a time actually took 
the place of the old Whig party in the South. For one 
thing, there was in certain regions of the South an im- 
migration problem of a character not unlike that of the 
north Atlantic seaboard. The states of the lower Mis- 
sissippi valley and the southern border states in the 
valleys of the Potomac and Ohio rivers contained nearly 
ninety per cent of the foreign-born population of the 
South, and a large portion of the foreign immigrants 
were massed in the large cities, where they nearly 
equaled in numbers the native-born. 1 Inasmuch as 
many of the immigrants were persons of questionable 
physical, mental, or moral capacity, the expense of 
public charity was materially increased and the whole 
moral tone of those cities was lowered. The inevitable 

1 DeBow, Compendium of the Seventh Census, 118, 123, 399. 
309 



310 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

result was that citizens of Louisiana, Missouri, Mary- 
land, and Kentucky played a conspicuous part in the 
nativist movement of the forties. 

Two considerations of a more artificial character 
furnished a basis for nativism in the rest of the South 
where there was no considerable foreign population. 
One was the natural alignment of the political parties, 
the force which made Whig and Democrat take oppo- 
site sides no matter what the issue ; the other was the 
spirit of sectionalism which made the South oppose 
arrangements that were primarily beneficial to the 
North. The latter, however, did not become a real 
factor in the development of political nativism until 
the last decade of the ante-bellum period. From the 
start, however, foreigners were not only attracted by 
the name of the Democratic party, which they almost 
invariably joined, but they found that they received 
but little sympathetic consideration from the Whig 
party, which was only too representative of the aristo- 
cratic elements of the nation. As the Whigs came to 
realize that the foreign-born voters probably held the 
balance of power and that their aid made inevitable 
Democratic success, they felt a strong attraction toward 
political nativism. 3 This party alignment on the prob- 
lem of the treatment of the foreigner was evidenced 
in 1838 by the strictly party vote on the amendment to 
the preemption bill which proposed to exclude aliens 
from preemption rights. It was the determining motive 

in the Whig defence of the action of the nativists in 
*> 

2 " Such a mass of ignorance and passion thrown all on one side have 
a most dangerous influence when the parties in the country are nearly 
balanced, etc." A. Porter to Crittenden, Jan. 2, 1841, Crittenden MSS. 
Porter was a Whig ex-senator from Louisiana and favored a fourteen- 
year period for naturalization and stricter laws in general. Cf. Taylor to 
Crittenden, March 25, 1848, ibid. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 311 

the famous " Native American riots " which occurred 
in Philadelphia at the beginning of the campaign of 
1844, in the outburst of Whig indignation against the 
foreign-born following Clay's defeat in that contest, 
and in the prompt and distinctly nativistic attempts 
under the leadership of the Whig senators from Lou- 
isiana and Virginia to secure legislation which would 
correct the deficiencies of the federal immigration pol- 
icy and the errors of the naturalization system. 

The possibility of a sectional basis for nativism was 
first indicated by the votes in the Senate in September, 
1850, on the proposition to grant homestead rights to 
actual settlers in the territory of Oregon. Mason of 
Virginia, a Democrat, twice moved to amend the meas- 
ure so as to exclude from the privilege foreigners who 
had merely declared their intention to become citizens ; 
these amendments were both defeated on votes that 
were essentially sectional, although there were still 
some traces of the party line. 8 In the first session of 
Congress under the Pierce administration the question 
of the treatment of the foreigner came up again in 
connection with the general homestead bill and the Ne- 
braska territorial bill. Propositions were introduced by 
Clayton of Delaware and supported by the southern 
senators for the exclusion of unnaturalized foreigners 
from homestead rights and from the electoral fran- 
chise in the new territories. The homestead amend- 
ment was defeated on a purely sectional vote. The 
amendment to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, however, was 
at first passed in the Senate with every southern vote 
in its favor and every northern vote in the negative, 
but it was later sacrificed by that body, after its rejec- 

a Senate Journal, 31 Cong., 1 sess., 643-645. 



312 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tion in the House, in order that the bill itself might be 
saved. 4 

The debate on the homestead bill at times revealed 
the motives of the southern members, although most 
of them explained their position as the result of the 
feeling that native, or even naturalized citizens, who 
had rendered some service to the country, ought to be 
favored over the newly arrived aliens. " Is there a 
Southern man, who has a regard for his constituency, 
or the interests of the section which he represents ", 
asked Thompson, a Whig senator from Kentucky, 
" who intends — as he knows it is a foregone conclusion 
that this is all to be free territory — to let them take it, 
and let them snatch it away from them, and say that 
men from the South are not to go into it, because they 
are tainted with a nigger ? . . . I believe further that 
this measure may be injurious to the Southern States. 
They do not want to have foreigners around their 
plantations, injuring their children, and excluding them 
from a fair participation in the benefits of the common 
territory of the Union." 5 Senator C. C. Clay, a Demo- 
crat from Alabama, who in 1838 had advocated a lib- 
eral and humane policy toward foreigners, and hence 
preemption rights for the foreign-born as well as for 
native Americans, now told the advocates of that policy 
that if the homestead bill passed unamended, they 
would see a powerful Native American party growing 
up in the southern states. 6 

The failure of the South to safeguard its interests in 
dealing with this situation brought out pointed com- 

* Senate Journal, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 231-232, 234, 515-516. 
Cong. Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess., 947, 948. 

6 Ibid., 1705. Cf., however, Stephens to Wm. M. Burwell, May 7, 
1854, Stephens MSS. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 313 

ments from the southern Whig press. While the bills 
were still pending, a Washington correspondent of the 
Baltimore Sun had pointed out the danger that without 
the proviso in the Nebraska bill excluding aliens from 
the right to vote "the South must assent to being 
voted out in the new Territories, or must turn against 
the bill and kill it ". By the homestead bill, moreover, 
he said, " We shall give away the domain to foreign 
immigrants as fast as they come into the country, so 
as to render certain the exclusion of the slaveholders 
from it ". 7 The Mobile Advertiser condemned the 
inclination of some southern Democrats to exult on old 
party grounds when the Clayton amendment was struck 
out by the House. "If the bill passes as it now stands ", 
it declared, " we see nothing to prevent the Northern 
Freesoilers from forwarding the first half-dozen ship- 
loads of emigrants that may arrive thereafter at the 
Northern ports directly to Nebraska and Kansas, where 
they can easily fix the character of both Territories, as 
far as slavery is concerned, for all time." 8 The Mill- 
edgeville Southern Recorder also believed that south- 
ern institutions could not get a foothold if foreigners 
were allowed to control the ballot-box. 9 

This new issue in the sectional controversy was 
especially important because it was raised just at the 
time that a revived nativist movement gave promise 
of considerable success. The coincidence was a sig- 
nificant one. The period of the early fifties, following 
the unsuccessful revolutionary movements of 1848 in 
Europe, brought an unprecedented flood of foreign 

7 National Intelligencer, March 8, 14, 1854. 

8 May 28, 1854. 

9 National Intelligencer, June 7, 1854. 



314 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

immigration and with it an increase of the evils at- 
tendant upon such an exodus from the old world. 
Inasmuch, moreover, as immigrant agents in Europe 
cautioned the deformed, crippled, and otherwise de- 
fective emigrants to take ships that would carry them 
to one of the southern ports where the provisions for 
prohibiting their landing were not so stringent, 10 the 
southern states must have received a fair share of the 
undesirable immigrants. Many of the new arrivals, 
also, were political exiles from their native lands. They 
began at once to organize by establishing political clubs 
in the large cities. In January, 1852, a German Revo- 
lutionary Congress met at Philadelphia attended by 
delegates from several local Revolutionary Unions. 11 In 
1854, an association of " Free Germans " was formed 
" for the purpose of being able to exercise a power 
proportionate to their numbers and adapted to their 
principles ", with headquarters in Louisville and 
branches in all the principal cities of the Union. 12 These 
organizations were criticized because of their radical 
political, religious, and social doctrines, many of their 
members being atheists, socialists, and agrarians. But 
what particularly concerned southerners, especially 
members of the Whig party, was their hostility to 
southern institutions. These foreigners, ready with 
expressions of sympathy for the negro, denounced 
slavery as a " political and moral cancer ", protested 
against its extension into any new territory, and advo- 
cated the gradual extermination of slavery in the sev- 
eral states. 

10 Sanderson, Republican Landmarks, 80. 

11 National Intelligencer, Feb. 6, March 1, 1852. 

12 Id., April 27; St. Louis Intelligencer, April 16, 1854. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 315 

The fiery wave of nativism that swept over the North 
in 1853 and 1854 found fuel for a steady but hot glow 
when it crossed the ineffective barriers of Mason and 
Dixon's line. Arriving in the form of a secret political 
organization which concealed even its name and exist- 
ence and holding up the high ideal of protecting Amer- 
ican institutions from the " insidious wiles of foreign- 
ers ", it made a strong appeal to southern Whigs who, 
in the transition state of politics following the break- 
down of their national organization, felt quite like men 
without a party. To them it promised a powerful and 
irresistible reorganization of the opposition. The Know 
Nothing party, therefore, soon became the opposition 
party in the South. 

There was first a prompt revival of nativism in its 
old strongholds. In New Orleans and St. Louis, and 
later in Washington, Nashville, Baltimore and other 
southern cities, Whig cooperation made possible im- 
portant victories in the local elections. 13 Soon Know 
Nothingism had more than a local existence in these 
southern cities. At a preliminary national convention 
of the order on May 14, 1854, southern delegations 
were present from Maryland, Virginia, and the District 
of Columbia. Exactly one month later, when the or- 
ganization of the movement was completed by the es- 
tablishment of a Grand Council for the United States 
and by the adoption of a constitution and a ritual, 
representatives of additional councils in Georgia and 
Alabama aided in the work. The Louisiana organiza- 
tion maintained an existence independent of the na- 

13 New Orleans Bulletin, March 29, Nov. 28; St. Louis Intelligencer, 
Aug. 1, 2, 7; Nashville Republican Banner, Oct. 2, 3, 4; Savannah 
Republican, Dec. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 12; Milledgeville Southern Recorder, 
Dec. s, 1854. 



316 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tional order. In the fall the " Americans " in Dela- 
ware elected their candidates for governor and con- 
gressmen as well as an overwhelming majority of the 
legislature. 14 In November the National Council at 
Cincinnati brought the ritual into final form, adding 
among other things the third or " Union " degree, so 
called because it pledged members upon oath to the 
support of the Union and to opposition to all who aimed 
to destroy or subvert it. This degree was proposed and 
urged by Kenneth Rayner of North Carolina, a former 
Whig, who aimed to arrest disunion sentiment in the 
South and abolitionism in the North. 15 It became very 
popular with former Whigs in the slaveholding states. 
The southern Democratic press condemned Know 
Nothingism from the start, charging it with being 
either an attempt to continue the old Whig party under 
an alias or a new organization to perpetuate Whig 
principles. 18 Most Whigs, indeed, and many Demo- 
crats felt an irresistible attraction to the order. Its 
novelty, its secrecy and mystery helped to make thou- 
sands of converts. The nativist movement claimed to 
herald an era of political reform which should rid the 
country of the corruption that had crept into high 
places, which should substitute devotion to the Union 
of the fathers for slavish devotion to party and for 
the control of the professional politician." Another 
consideration that commended the American movement 

14 P. F. Causey to Clayton, Nov. 23, 1854, Clayton MSS. 

15 Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, 420-422. 

18 Houston Southern Argus, July 26; Vicksburg Sentinel, April 29; 
Kosciusko Southern Sun, April 1, July 15, 29; Mobile Register, in 
Mobile Advertiser, June 6, 1854. 

17 Savannah Republican, June 12, 15, Dec. 4; Mobile Advertiser, 
June 30; Wm. C. Rives to Burwell, Nov. 12, 1854, Burwell MSS.; 
G. W. Mitchell to A. H. H. Stuart, June 20, 1854, Stuart MSS. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 317 

with peculiar force to the Whigs of the South was the 
fear harbored by southerners since the introduction of 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill in Congress, that the for- 
eigners, especially the Germans, came to this country 
instinctively prejudiced against slavery and that they 
would take a prominent part in the anti-slavery move- 
ment of the future. This apprehension was now con- 
firmed by news from the North. 18 The American party, 
on the other hand, had given assurances of being 
" sound " on the slavery question. It gave promise of 
being a really national party at a time when there was 
an especial need of one. 

The state elections of 1855 were to test the real 
strength of the organization. In the critical contest 
in Virginia, the first election of the year, Flournoy, a 
former Whig leader and the American candidate for 
governor, made a fatal mistake by proclaiming, in his 
letter accepting the nomination, his desire to see mem- 
bers of the Roman Catholic church " excluded from 
the offices of the government in all its departments ". w 
In this he did not reflect the views of the Know Noth- 
ings in the South, where the American party did not 
display that anti-Catholic feature which was so charac- 
teristic of nativism in the North. Flournoy and the 
Know Nothing leaders, however, refused to take the 
stump in his defence and the bold aggressiveness of 
the Democratic candidate, in an acrimonious and ex- 

18 See Von Hoist, Constitutional History, IV, 429, note. The Illinois 
Staats Zeitung, Sept. 20, issued an appeal for a Republican party, a 
great American "Liberty Party". Missouri Republican, Sept. 25, 
1854. 

19 Hambleton, Virginia Politics in 1855, 170. The " Basis Principles 
of the American Party in Virginia ", however, made no mention of 
Catholics but asserted the " American doctrine of religious toleration " 
and reprobated " all proscription for opinion's sake ". Ibid., 210. 



318 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

citing canvass, succeeded in fixing upon Know Noth- 
ingism the imputation of intolerance and of prescribing 
a religious test as a qualification for office, a charge 
which was never satisfactorily refuted in this Virginia 
campaign. As a result the Democrats won a victory 
with the usual majority despite the confidence of the 
opposition. 20 

The moral effect of the Virginia defeat on former 
Democrats who had joined the American order was 
disastrous to the cause in the other states. There the 
elections resulted in the success of the Democratic 
state tickets except in Kentucky and Maryland, but the 
Know Nothings elected quotas of the legislatures and 
of the congressional delegations fully proportionate to 
the Whig strength of previous years. Tennessee chose 
a Democratic governor, reelecting Andrew Johnson 
over Gentry, a former Whig, but the Know Nothings 
elected a bare majority of both houses of the legislature 
and a majority of the congressional delegation. 

The strength of the American party in the South 
lay in its supposed unity as a national organization and 
in its exploitation of the effect of the unprecedented for- 
eign immigration upon sectional relations. It pointed 
to the large foreign-born population of the North to 
which the immigrant came with strongly preconceived 
anti-slavery inclinations. The North already had over 
fifty more representatives in Congress than the South. 
At the existing rate of apportionment, the tide of immi- 
gration was increasing the population of the northern 
states to an extent that would entitle that section to 
five additional members every year. It was even stated 

20 Hambleton, 410-420; J. L. Newby to Crittenden, May 12, 1855, Critten- 
den MSS. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 319 

that the foreign vote would soon be as large as the 
vote of the South. 21 

The Native Americans in the southern states, on the 
other hand, pointed with pride to a sincere desire on 
the part of the northern members of their party to put 
down the slavery agitation. The ratification of the 
Union degree by most northern councils was cited as 
overwhelming proof of the nationality of the party. 32 
In the National Council of June, 1855, a southerner, 
E. B. Bartlett of Kentucky, was elected head of the 
order. A platform was also adopted containing the 
famous twelfth section, which, after deploring all fur- 
ther agitation of the slavery question and arguing that 
peace and the Union could best be preserved by main- 
taining the existing laws upon the subject of slavery 
as a final settlement, declared that Congress had no 
power to legislate upon that subject in the states, and 
ought not in the territories or in the District of Co- 
lumbia. This was an extreme concession to the South ; 
it was, indeed, all that the strongest pro-slavery men 
had demanded. Yet they forced it through, though it 
resulted in the secession of a large number of northern 
delegates headed by Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. 2 * 
The southern wing rejoiced sincerely at this result; it 
held up the platform as a model one for the guarantee 
of southern rights. 

The dissolution of the Whig party to make possible 
combined action by Whigs and Know Nothings against 

21 Nashville Republican Banner, June 23; Mobile Advertiser, Aug. 2; 
Savannah Republican, Aug. 21, 1855. 

22 Nashville Republican Banner, May 8, 26, 1855. 

28 Proceedings from New York Herald, in Savannah Republican, 
June 11-19; from New York Express, in National Intelligencer, June 
13-16, 1855. Cf. A. T. Burnley to Crittenden, June 12, 1855, Crit- 
tenden MSS. 



320 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

the Democrats transferred most of the southern Whigs 
to the Know Nothing ranks ; many of them, however, 
took advantage of the release of the old ties to connect 
themselves with the Democratic party. Stephens and 
Toombs took this occasion to complete the shift that 
had begun several years before. Among others who 
eventually took the same course was Senator Benjamin 
of Louisiana. All were received with open arms by 
their former opponents, who welcomed this accession to 
replace those lost by defection to the American party. 
Many Whigs, however, though cooperating with the 
Democrats in opposing Know Nothingism, held aloof 
from a new affiliation and often asserted that they were 
as good Whigs as ever and would always remain such. 
Others, such as senators Jones of Tennessee and Ben- 
jamin of Louisiana, and Charles J. Jenkins of Georgia, 
had for a time visions of a great southern party upon 
a platform for the protection of southern rights similar 
to that of the Georgia convention of 1850. 24 

Many of the Whigs who went into the American 
party repeatedly stated that their principles had thereby 
undergone no change. " We counsel not the abandon- 
ment of a single Whig tenet ", the Richmond Whig 
had declared on taking up the movement, "but only 
urge a course which will effectually expel the Goths 
and Vandals, and ultimately, perhaps immediately, re- 
sult in putting Whig measures and Whig policy in the 

24 Jones to W. Chaffin, etc., July 8, Nashville Republican Banner, 
July 17; Benjamin to J. F. Freret, etc., Aug. 3, New Orleans Bulle- 
tin, Aug. 3; Jenkins to — , June 15, Savannah Republican, June 20, 
1855. 

An abortive attempt in Georgia to put some of these ideas into prac- 
tice, however, resulted in a flat failure. Id., June 21; Philadelphia 
Public Ledger, June 6, 1855. 



N^ 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 321 

ascendant." 25 From this point of view it was consid- 
ered wrong to regard the Whig party as dead when, as 
Berrien stated, it had only abstained as a party from 
entering the contest. It was now confidently expected 
by some that a demand would soon arise for its resus- 
citation. But with former Whigs divided into Dem- 
ocrats, " outside Whigs ", anti-Know Nothings, and 
Know Nothings, the possibility of effective reorganiza- 
tion was, indeed, a slight one. Senator Bell of Ten- 
nessee therefore urged in a speech at Knoxville that 
the American party should be regarded as a permanent 
party, the successor of the defunct Whig organiza- 
tion. 26 

Preparations were soon begun for the coming presi- 
dential election. By this time, however, the northern 
and the southern wings of the American party were 
growing more and more out of sympathy. The twelfth 
section of the Philadelphia platform of the previous 
June had been repudiated in many of the northern 
states, and even moderate leaders were coming to the 
conclusion that differences of opinion should be tol- 
erated upon such local and sectional questions as 
slavery. A large number of Americans in the border 
states of the South also felt from past experience that 
it was wise not to make agreement on the slavery ques- 
tion a test of party orthodoxy but to avoid controversy 
by " agreeing to disagree "J" In the lower South, how- 
ever, the American state conventions adopted advanced 
positions regarding slavery, declaring that Congress 
had no right to legislate on slavery in the territories, 

25 Jan. 3, 1855, in Hambleton, Virginia Politics in 1855, 44-45'. see 
also Mobile Advertiser, Aug. 17, 1855. 

26 Nashville Republican Banner, Oct. 21, 1855. 

27 Id., Jan. 11, 18, 19, etc., 1856. 

22 



322 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

repudiating the doctrine of squatter sovereignty, and 
declaring that there must be no step backward from 
the Georgia platform. 28 Such action must be inter- 
preted as an attempt to assume ground that would at- 
tract local support rather than as an ultimatum to 
the northern Know Nothings, although this was ex- 
actly what the Georgia resolutions purported to be. 
The moral, moreover, to be deduced from the part 
played by the northern and the southern members of 
the American party in the contest over the speakership 
in December and January confirmed the hopelessness 
of agreement on the subject of slavery. 

The national nominating convention in February, 
1856, was immediately preceded by a National Coun- 
cil which discarded the platform of the previous June 
for a new one which avoided an explicit expression of 
the party's views on slavery but which was generally 
favorable to the South. In the convention, the anti- 
slavery element made so desperate an effort to reject 
the platform of the Council, on the ground that the 
Council had no authority to adopt it, that the disruption 
of the convention was feared and many of the south- 
ern delegates were on the point of withdrawing. After 
the efforts of the northerners failed and a number of 
them had left the convention, Fillmore and Donelson 
were harmoniously agreed upon as the candidates of 
the American party. 29 

The nomination of Fillmore should have been popu- 
lar in the South. His supporters had been bitterly 
disappointed at his rejection by the Whig convention 

28 Mobile Advertiser, Nov. 24; Savannah Republican, Dec. 22, 1855. 

29 Proceedings in Philadelphia Public Ledger, Feb. 19-26; cf. Savan- 
nah Republican, Feb. 25-27; Nashville Republican Banner, Feb. 26-28; 
Mobile Advertiser, March 5, April 4, 1856. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 323 

of 1852 and had then determined that he should be 
the standard-bearer against the Democracy in the next 
contest. 30 He had made a tour of the southern states 
in the spring of 1854 and had been given an enthusiastic 
reception at all his stopping-places. He was, indeed, 
almost the only person mentioned by southern Whigs 
and Americans in connection with the presidency. But 
for some time there was in the South a certain coolness 
regarding the American ticket and platform. The 
usual ratification meetings were held but regular state 
conventions often delayed action until further develop- 
ments or until the results of the other national conven- 
tions could be learned. This was in part due to the fact 
that the American party, almost from its beginning as a 
national organization and most notably so in the Feb- 
ruary convention, had been torn to dissension by the 
most unrelenting and invincible adversary of harmony 
and union, sectionalism, the force that had prostrated 
and destroyed the Whig party. As the American party 
had wrapped its opinions on the slavery question in 
equivocation in order to avoid a direct schism, the 
extremists on either side were unsatisfied. 31 

Fillmore was in Europe at the time of his nomination 
and there was a good deal of uncertainty in regard to 
his opinions. He was believed to have opposed the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise two years before 
and it was now feared that he advocated its restoration. 
The arrival of his letter of acceptance," however, and 
the news of his famous Albany speech increased his 
prospects in the South. In the latter, which he deliv- 

80 Savannah Republican, Aug. 12; Knoxville Whig, Nov. 27, 1852. 

31 Mobile Advertiser, March 25, 26, May 2, July 2, 1856. 

33 Richmond Whig, June 12; Savannah Republican, June 16, 1856. 



324 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

ered promptly upon his return from abroad, he advo- 
cated the integrity of the republic and justice to the 
South and came out in bold language against a sec- 
tional party. This was a satisfactory answer to Fre- 
mont's nomination by the Republican party of the 
North and his words were carefully copied by the 
party press in the southern states. The nomination of 
the Democratic candidate by the Cincinnati convention, 
even so favorable a one as Buchanan, only aroused 
the traditional animosity of former Whigs against 
their party opponents. The leading arguments of the 
Americans in the South were that Fillmore, who re- 
jected the heresy of squatter sovereignty, was the only 
sound candidate and the standard-bearer of the only 
sound party on the subject of slavery and in devotion 
to the constitution and the Union; that the safety of 
the republic depended on his success, since Buchanan 
was much too weak in the North to prevent Fremont's 
election; that it was for the South to decide whether 
it was to be a sectional contest between Buchanan and 
Fremont or one in which Fillmore, a national candi- 
date, should oppose the nominee of the " Black Repub- 
licans ". The weakness of these arguments was ap- 
parent on the surface but it was hardly expected that 
Fillmore would receive a majority of the electoral 
votes. It was hoped that the election would be thrown 
into the House of Representatives, where it was thought 
that Fillmore's chances were better than those of either 
Buchanan or Fremont. 

But there was a strong feeling in the South that 
Fillmore could not be elected under any circumstances. 
There was, therefore, danger that a division of the 
vote of the South would make possible the election of 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 325 

Fremont — that a vote for Fillmore would virtually 
mean a vote for the Republican candidate. 83 This was 
the leading argument of the southern Democrats; it 
was so diligently applied during the whole campaign 
as to make many a Fillmore organ wince under its 
forcefulness. This argument made it the imperative 
duty in the eyes of many southern Whigs and Ameri- 
cans to abandon Fillmore to take up the support of 
Buchanan. The latter was admittedly a strong and 
popular candidate in the South and, as it was a case 
of voting on the strongest side to guarantee the defeat 
of that " sectional, dangerous, and unprincipled com- 
bination called the Republican party ", the odds were 
in favor of a Democratic victory. 

Accordingly, many old-line Whigs, some of whom 
had thus far cooperated with the Americans, now made 
their way into the ranks of the Buchanan party and 
bade a final farewell to their old associations. The 
most prominent Whigs in Maryland took this course 
— Senators Pratt and Pearce and two of their predeces- 
sors, Merrick and Reverdy Johnson. A host of others 
all over the South came to the same decision, among 
them, Jones of Tennessee, Benjamin of Louisiana, 
Preston and James B. Clay of Kentucky, and Jenkins 
of Georgia. It was in vain that certain Whig presses 
changed their tone and now declared that Fremont 
could not be elected in any contingency, that the con- 
test was one between Buchanan and Fillmore. 34 Only 
Bell, Crittenden, Graham, Mangum, and a few others 
of the old guard in the South took the stump for Fill- 
more and Donelson. 

33 See New Orleans Bulletin, June 7, 13; Richmond Whig, Aug. 26, 
1856. 

34 Savannah Republican, Oct. 21; Mobile Advertiser, Oct. 16; Mem- 
phis Enquirer, in National Intelligencer, Oct. 13. 



326 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

There was a slight movement for Whig reorganiza- 
tion both before and during the campaign. This was 
strongest in the border states, especially in Missouri, 
Kentucky, Maryland, and Virginia. But it was a fail- 
ure so far as attempting separate political action was 
concerned. The national Whig convention, which finally 
met at Baltimore in September and passed resolutions 
to support Fillmore and Donelson, was largely made 
up of men who were already actively in the field in 
support of them as the nominees of the American 
party. 33 This convention, indeed, was known to be 
largely a movement engineered to create new capital 
in their favor among former Whigs who were still in 
doubt; its result had been a foregone conclusion. 

Everything pointed to Democratic success in the 
South ; indeed, November placed all the southern states, 
except Maryland, which gave its eight electoral votes 
to Fillmore, in the Democratic column. With, however, 
nearly a half million votes in the South for Fillmore 
there was evidence that the opposition to the Demo- 
cratic party, in the past so long identified with Whig- 
gery, had not yet sunk to proportions that left it with- 
out political significance. It was noticeable, however, 
that the Democrats made their most important gains 
in the interior or agricultural districts, while the oppo- 
sition held majorities in many of the important cities 
of the South* The result was accepted with grace by 
the Whigs and the Americans. They did not fail to 
point out, however, that it was the beginning of the 
end, that the solution of the problem of the permanency 
of the Union was but postponed to the next presidential 

85 Proceedings in National Intelligencer, Sept. 20; see id., Sept. 18, 
19; Baltimore Patriot, Sept. 18, 19. 
36 See New Orleans Bulletin, Nov. 26, 1856. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 327 

election. The opposition still assumed the guardianship 
of the nation against the foes of conservatism and of 
compromise. 

At the opening of Buchanan's administration con- 
ditions in the South seemed auspicious for the inaugu- 
ration of an era of good feeling. A president occupied 
the executive chair who had been elected to that posi- 
tion partly through the suffrages of many who had 
hitherto been identified with the opposition. Southern 
Whigs and Americans hoped, therefore, that he might 
by a prudent and conciliatory management of public 
affairs win the favor of citizens generally, regardless 
of their party affiliations ; that the conservative element 
recently infused into the Democracy might work out 
a result generally beneficial to it and to the nation. 
Henry W. Hilliard of Alabama undertook to explain 
this view in announcing his support of the Democratic 
administration. He commended the tone of Buchanan's 
inaugural and praised the policy outlined. The admin- 
istration, he believed, stood as a bulwark for the de- 
fence of southern rights; he felt that it " ought to be 
sustained by the r undivided South ' ". . . . " An undi- 
vided South as the base of a great constitutional party, 
embracing the conservative men of all sections, is what 
I desire to see." 3T This ideal of the unity of the South 
found many such advocates even outside of the Demo- 
cratic ranks, 38 to the great detriment of the opposition 
organization there. 

But not all could be satisfied with a Democracy and 
with a Democratic administration which A. J. Donelson 

8T Hilliard to editors of National Intelligencer, issue of June 2, 1857; 
see also Hilliard, Politics and Pen Pictures, 276-277. 
88 National Intelligencer, June 6, 1857. 



328 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

and Jeremiah Clemens, themselves ex-Democrats, de- 
nounced as a "sham", the "miscalled Democracy". 
Soon the traditional party animosity broke out again. 
This time the attempt was made to revive the old Whig 
organization. For it was recognized that the American 
party was impotent and could not handle the situation. 
The American national convention meeting at Louis- 
ville in vain attempted to adapt its organization to a 
recovery of its lost strength. 39 

The natural demand for a Whig revival was set in 
motion by an address of a number of prominent New 
Orleans Whigs " To the People of Louisiana ", which 
showed the basis for and the need of a reorganization 
of the conservatives under their original banner. 40 The 
old Whig organs were stirred to enthusiasm by this 
proposal, to which they gave their hearty endorsement. 
" The country needs the reorganization of the Whig 
party ", declared the New Orleans Bulletin. " By hold- 
ing the balance of power, which it can at least do by 
such organization, it can exercise a powerful conserva- 
tive influence, of which the country now stands in 
perilous need." tt There seemed to be a logical founda- 
tion for the proposed Whig reorganization. As the 
National Intelligencer announced, " The platform . . . 
of the ' American ' and ' Republican ' parties is too 
narrow for a liberal and national Whig to stand on, 
while to the theory and administration of the Dem- 
ocratic party there must ever remain much that is 
repulsive to one who has been thoroughly imbued with 
the principles of a Clay and a Webster ". 42 

39 Proceedings in National Intelligencer, June 6; cf. id., July 15. 

40 Id., June 23, 1857. 

41 Ibid. 

42 Ibid. ; cf. editorials cited, ibid. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 329 

The movement, however, met with but a faint re- 
sponse from those who had been formerly affiliated 
with the Whig organization. The optimists and vis- 
ionaries, to be sure, did not appreciate that the Whig 
party was beyond the sound of the trump of resurrec- 
tion. But the others realized that its political ground 
in the South had been taken by the American party; 
that on sectional questions there was little substantial 
difference between the two existing parties at the 
South; that there was, accordingly, little basis for 
Whig reorganization. Meantime the American party 
was steadily losing ground in the South, where the state 
elections revealed it in a decided minority in every 
state except Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Delaware. 

Those interested in building up an effective opposi- 
tion to the Democracy, however, clutched at every ray 
of hope that seemed to encourage them in their gloomy 
cause. They beheld with satisfaction a growing favor 
in the South for the old scheme of distributing the 
proceeds of the public land sales among all the states, 
this new interest being stimulated by an increasing 
sectional jealousy of the land grants for railroad enter- 
prises in the northwestern states. Then came the panic 
of 1857, a financial tornado which left behind a trail 
of ruin and destruction. Its effect was for a time to 
divert the public mind from the sectional issue to the 
problem of meeting this emergency. 43 Among the rem- 
edies suggested for financial and commercial recovery 
were the old Whig measures, the national bank and 
the protective tariff. At once the optimists urged 
the alignment of parties on these old issues, as a neces- 

48 New Orleans Delta, Oct. 24, in National Intelligencer, Nov. 7; 
cf. id., Nov. 7, 9, 1857. 



330 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

sary and desirable basis. The results of the past finan- 
cial experiences, it was said, pointed to the need of a 
national bank. A higher and more protective tariff 
was urged as the condition of economic recovery and 
future prosperity. 44 With these old issues revived, it 
was argued that "the Benjamins, the Toombses, the 
Stephenses, and Clingmans, still adhering to their con- 
stitutional theories as Whigs of '37, '41, and '42, could 
no longer cooperate with the Democratic party in the 
South ", 45 

The hopes for an effective reorganization of the 
opposition were encouraged by the growing disorgan- 
ization of the Democratic party. The official journal 
of the administration admitted that the party was in 
more or less danger of becoming " a mere piece of 
mosaic, 'a bit of white stone here and a black stone 
there ' — a species of hydra of many heads, composed 
of ' many men of many minds ' ", 48 It was criticized by 
an opponent as " a conglomeration of odds and ends 
which bears nothing good but a name " ? The schism 
in the early months of 1858, over the admission of 
Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, definitely 
divided that party into two hostile camps. Douglas 
and his followers differed widely from Buchanan and 

44 Richmond Whig, Oct. 29, 1857; cf. National Intelligencer, June 23, 
Nov. 2, 1858. In the caucus of Democratic senators in January and 
February, 1859, certain southern senators of this anti-high tariff party 
favored an increase in the tariff as absolutely necessary, id., Feb. 1, 7, 8, 
1859- 

45 New Orleans Delta, Oct. 27, 1857. 

46 National Intelligencer, Oct. 13, 1858. See also Washington States, 
Jan. 26, 1859, in Mobile Advertiser, Feb. 5. 

47 Savannah Republican, May 26; cf. March 23, May 28, 1859. 

Part of the Louisiana Democracy broke away from the element in 
control there and under ex-Senator Soule boldly condemned the methods 
of the regulars. National Intelligencer, April 14, 1859. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 331 

the rest of the party in their interpretation of the work- 
ings of popular sovereignty. 

The attitude of the southern opposition to the situa- 
tion in Kansas was essentially moderate and conserva- 
tive from the beginning of the struggle there. While 
all southerners zealously supported the cause of win- 
ning it as a slave state, all violent means of securing 
this end were earnestly deplored and condemned, 48 and 
the disorder in bleeding Kansas was held up, in con- 
trast with the language of Pierce's inaugural, as the 
result of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and 
the establishment of the doctrine of squatter sov- 
ereignty. 49 In 1858, a large majority of the southern 
opposition opposed the adoption of the Lecompton 
constitution ; Senator Crittenden of Kentucky came out 
against it in a powerful speech which was almost uni- 
versally approved by the Americans and the Whigs of 
the South. 50 

This situation increased the prospect of uniting the 
conservative men of every name and of both sections 
into a party having for its basis the entire overthrow 
of the Democracy. 51 The leaders arranged to confer 
in preparation for the formation of a conservative, 
national, Union party, the movement being engineered 
principally by Nathan Sargent, representing the north- 
ern conservatives. 52 Accordingly, in December, 1858, 
representative opposition men from thirteen states held 

48 New Orleans Bulletin, Sept. 5, 1855, Sept. n, 1856; Savannah 
Republican, March 1, April 1, 1856; Mobile Advertiser, June 13, 1856. 

49 Cf. Nashville Republican Banner, Sept. 12, 1856. 

50 Dozens of letters poured in on Crittenden from the opposition 
leaders praising the stand he had taken and endorsing the sentiments 
he had expressed. Crittenden MSS. 

61 Coleman, Life of J. J. Crittenden, II, 147. 

62 Sargent to A. H. H. Stuart, Oct. 31, 1858, Stuart MSS. 



332 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

a conference at Washington to discuss the situation." 
The plan was to nominate conservative candidates for 
the contest of i860, such as the Republicans could 
"neither get over nor around, ignore, nor object to", 
thus to detach the conservatives of that party. 64 

This purpose of drawing on the Republican party 
to fill the ranks of the new organization received the 
support of a number of southern conservatives. They 
suggested that there was now no slavery question to 
divide the opposition, that each section should be al- 
lowed to hold its own views on that subject, and that 
the contest be made upon practical issues without in- 
volving the slavery agitation. 55 In their growing hatred 
of the Democracy they had lost some of their bitter- 
ness against the Republicans. The Richmond Whig, 
September 30, 1859, pledged the Whigs of Virginia " to 
support Seward a thousand times sooner than any Dem- 
ocrat, Northern or Southern, in the land ". Imagining 
anti-slavery Republicanism on the wane, they hoped 
that the moderate Republicans could take a prominent 
place in a broad opposition movement. " If the Black 
Republican party eschew sectional issues and have be- 
come national and conservative in their action ", argued 
the son of Henry Clay, " why should not all true Amer- 
icans unite with it to cleanse the Augean stable at 
Washington and to purify the country from this bane- 
ful influence ? " 58 Republican leaders were showing 
exactly such moderation. Abraham Lincoln in a speech 

53 New York Tribune, Dec. u, 17; National Intelligencer, Dec. 20, 
1858. 

54 Sargent to A. H. H. Stuart, Feb. 18, 27, 1859, Stuart MSS. 

65 Mobile Advertiser, Feb. 19, Aug. 17, 1859; cf. National Intelli- 
gencer, Sept. 16, 20. 

69 Thos. H. Clay to Crittenden, June 24, 1858, Crittenden MSS.; see 
also New Orleans Bee, Oct. 27, 1857. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 333 

at Cincinnati indicated a preference for. a southern man 
at either end of the presidential ticket, explaining that 
" the proslavery party must be shown that the Repub- 
licans, in opposing the aggrandizement of slavery, were 
friends of the Union and promoters of the general pub- 
lic good "." Henry W. Davis of Maryland expressed 
the opinion of many southerners when, in a speech in 
September, 1859, accepting a nomination to Congress, 
he urged the necessity of a union of the opposition, 
North and South, for the overthrow of the party in 
power, and of cooperation in the presidential campaign 
and in national politics without attempting to set up 
any platforms or tests of orthodoxy. 58 

The reorganization movement was taken up in sev- 
eral states of the South with considerable enthusiasm. 
At first it was treated as a Whig revival but it was later 
found expedient to give the movement a name implying 
a wider scope. Most of the American state organiza- 
tions abandoned their name and existence and prepared 
to cooperate in the cause of the " Opposition ". This 
included, of necessity, the old-line Whigs, Know Noth- 
ings, the dissatisfied Democrats, 59 and the conservative 
Republicans. In the South proper, however, little was 
said of the connection of the latter with the movement. 

Virginia was expected to set the pace for her sister 
southern states. A rousing opposition state convention 
early in February adopted a full state ticket and a vig- 
orous platform. An exciting gubernatorial contest 
was opened with Goggin opposing Letcher, the Demo- 

57 National Intelligencer, Sept. 22, 1859. 
53 Id., Sept. 24, 1859. 

69 The recusant Louisiana Democrats finally resolved to cooperate with 
the opposition throughout the state. Id., Sept. 2, 1859. 



334 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

cratic candidate. 60 The result was close and, although 
another Democratic victory, it showed a wonderful 
increase in the strength of the opposition and was a 
source of great encouragement to the cause there and 
elsewhere. 61 There was in every state a bustling activ- 
ity on the part of the opposition which busied itself 
with organizing for the control of the local contests. 
Alabama alone had no opposition ticket in the field. In 
Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina, important 
gains were made. The Democratic majority in the 
Tennessee legislature was cut down to a mere handful 
and the opposition gained four members of Congress ; 
in Kentucky, two congressional seats were recovered 
from the Democracy ; while the North Carolina oppo- 
sition added three members of Congress to its repre- 
sentation, thus securing one-half of the delegation. 
Throughout the South generally the opposition made 
material gains in its voting strength. 

The reorganizers in Virginia, under the influence of 
A. H. H. Stuart, prepared to follow up the gains which 
they had made. A call was issued by the state central 
committee for a state convention " preliminary to a 
National Convention intended to be held hereafter, with 
the view of collecting, and harmonizing, and organizing 
the conservative Union sentiments of the country ". w 
This was, of course, the chief aim of the movement — 
to build up a national party which should succeed to the 
strong position and influence of the old Whig organiza- 
tion. Several persons were prominently mentioned as 
fit candidates for the presidential nomination of such 

60 National Intelligencer, Feb. 9, 14, 23, 1859; cf. N. Sargent to A. H. 
H. Stuart, Feb. 18, 1859, Stuart MSS. 
81 Richmond Whig, July 15, in National Intelligencer, July 19, 1859. 
62 National Intelligencer, Aug. 26, 27, 30, 1859. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 335 

a movement. Virginia had her favorite son, John M. 
Botts, a leader of vigor and generous in his allowances 
for differences of opinion on the slavery question. Be- 
sides him, Bell of Tennessee, Crittenden of Kentucky, 
and Edward Bates of Missouri were considered in this 
connection. The first two were leaders of long estab- 
lished and national reputations; Bates had for a time 
special claims to consideration. Coming from a state 
where slavery existed he was moderately opposed to an 
extension of that institution ; indeed, his views on this 
subject closely resembled those of Henry Clay. He 
was, therefore, often classified as a moderate Repub- 
lican. He believed in a broad opposition movement 
which should include the good men of all parties, even 
Republicans. 63 He was the favorite of all the opposition 
elements in his state, and was supported by many 
outside who felt that if he was nominated by the con- 
servative opposition, it would rob the rabid Republicans 
of their strength and most probably compel that party 
to endorse his nomination. 64 

Thus far the reawakening of the opposition had been 
regarded primarily as an anti-Democratic movement, 
aiming to expel the Democrats from the control of the 
federal and state governments. Indeed, even the oppo- 
sition press of the lower South had become favorable 
to some sort of cooperation with the " Constitutional 
Republicans "of the North. A leading object of the 
southern opposition was to secure an abandonment of 
the slavery issue in national politics; it claimed that 
the slavery controversy had by this time reached a 

63 Bates to Hon. Jeremiah Clemens, etc., id., Aug. 31, 1859. 
M N. Sargent to A. H. H. Stuart, Feb. 18, Nov. 17, 1859, Stuart 
MSS. 



336 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

proper termination. 65 It was pointed out that the Re- 
publican party in the North was in the habit of using 
the slavery question for effect there just as the Demo- 
crats did in the South, that the Republicans were not 
as fanatically devoted to the anti-slavery cause as was 
supposed. 66 Many believed that there were thousands 
of conservatives in the Republican party of the North 
who could properly be drawn into a conservative na- 
tional opposition organization. 67 

But suddenly, as a result of John Brown's raid upon 
Harper's Ferry in October, 1859, the sectional agitation 
broke loose again and to the Republican party was 
assigned a large share of the blame for the unfortunate 
incident. The southern Democrats made full use of the 
occasion to depict the dangerous situation in which 
their section was placed, and, although the conservative 
leaders tried to allay the excitement, 68 many of the rank 
and file and even some of the leaders refused to be 
calmed. Instead, they increased their hatred of the 
Republican party and of the North. That famous 
emeute removed all basis for the union of the whole 
opposition of both sections on a single presidential can- 
didate. 

When Congress met in December, the organization of 

65 National Intelligencer, Sept. 6, Oct. 8; Mobile Advertiser, Aug. 
24; Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor, May 26, 1859. 

86 Savannah Republican, April 18; Mobile Advertiser, May 11, 1859. 

67 The Savannah Republican, April 29, after explaining the object 
of the opposition, declared that there were in the Republican party 
" many true and patriotic men who have been seduced into error by 
the excitement of the times, or have gone into it involuntarily as the 
only mode of effective opposition to a party whose whole history has 
proved it inimical to the best interests of the country ". Cf. id., Jan. 
29, May 4, July 26, 1859. 

68 Cf. National Intelligencer, Dec. 5-8; Mobile Advertiser, Nov. 5; 
Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor, Dec. 17, 24, 1859; etc. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 337 

the House was delayed by the lack of a majority on the 
part of any of the political groups into which it was 
divided. During the contest, the foundations for a 
new Union party were laid under the leadership of 
Senator Crittenden. The new organization was to 
occupy the middle ground between the Democratic and 
Republican parties, opposing the anti-slavery passions 
of the one and the anti-Union tendencies of the other. 69 
A meeting of the southern opposition members of Con- 
gress and of other conservative leaders was held on the 
nineteenth of December and arrangements were made 
to confer with the central committees of the Whig and 
the American organizations. 70 Within five days the call 
for a National Union convention was sanctioned by the 
combined forces which made up the conservative oppo- 
sition. 

The contest over the speakership resulted, after a 
struggle of two months, in the election of Pennington 
of New Jersey, an old-line Whig, who had just become 
a moderate Republican, but who was not the regular 
candidate of that party. Henry W. Davis of Maryland 
contributed his vote to Pennington's election, and, al- 
though his course met with some criticism, it was fully 
endorsed in at least one meeting of his constituents, 
who prefaced their resolutions by the phrase " southern 
slaveholders as we are ". n Indeed, sentiment on the 
subject of Pennington's election furnishes clear evi- 
dence of the conservatism of the southern opposition 
and of the ultraism of the southern Democratic fire- 
eaters. 72 

69 Crittenden to S. S. Nicholas, Jan. 29, i860, Crittenden MSS. 
7n National Intelligencer, Dec. 23, 24, 26, 1859. 
n Id., Feb. 25, i860. 
73 Id., Feb. 2, 3, 9, ix ; etc. 
23 



338 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

The national organization of the new Constitutional 
Union party was soon completed and a call was sent out 
for the meeting of a national convention in May at 
Baltimore. A union of the entire opposition, North 
and South, was still talked about 73 but daily grew more 
and more improbable. The Democratic split at Charles- 
ton seemed favorable to the Constitutional Union 
cause, 74 and the organizers and leaders of the movement 
were hopeful, though at no time especially optimistic 
or confident of success. 

The national convention was held at Baltimore on 
the ninth of May. Instead of adopting a regular plat- 
form, it merely declared, in the words of Clay, for the 
" Constitution of the country, the Union of the States, 
and the enforcement of the laws ". John Bell of Ten- 
nessee and Edward Everett of Massachusetts were 
nominated as the party's candidates for president and 
vice-president. Both old-line Whigs of long experi- 
ence in public affairs and of known conservatism, they 
were fit representatives of the Union sentiment of both 
sections. 

The nomination of Lincoln by the Republicans prob- 
ably checked the current, in the South as well as in the 
North, that was flowing into the Constitutional Union 
party, for many had anticipated the selection of Sew- 
ard, the " arch-agitator ". re But the nomination of Bell 
and Everett was received and endorsed with consid- 
erable enthusiasm and an active campaign was con- 

78 See F. P. Blair to Crittenden, Feb. 16, i860; Coleman, Life of 
J. I. Crittenden, II, 186, cf. 190. 

74 National Intelligencer, May 9, i860. 

75 B. F. Perry of South Carolina, in a letter to the editors of the 
National Intelligencer, dated Aug. 13, declared that " Mr. Fillmore 
became President of the United States with a worse record than Lin- 
coln on the slavery question ". In issue of Aug. 23, i860. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 339 

ducted in the South. It was pointed out that the hopes 
for the permanence of the Union were in this conserv- 
ative party. Many southern Democrats, who ques- 
tioned the wisdom of the influences which now con- 
trolled their party there and who still loved the Union, 
some of them former Whigs, took their places as 
recruits in its ranks. The movement gained strength 
as the canvass drew to a close. Its opponents, even, 
came to concede its strength in the South. 76 

But early returns in November showed that the worst 
had happened — that the Republicans had successfully 
elected Lincoln, 77 and that the moment had arrived 
when the great test of the strength of the Union was 
to be made. During the campaign the Constitutional 
Union men had answered the declarations of the ultras 
for disunion in the event of Lincoln's election, by an- 
nouncing that they intended to give the successful 
candidate a fair trial and to wait for some overt act 
against the South before resorting to the final remedy 
of the oppressed. Now that the crisis arrived they 
repeated this announcement. They were resolved to 
exhaust all rational and honorable expedients for ob- 
taining a redress of southern grievances within the 
Union. They were the advocates and supporters of 
schemes of compromise by which the integrity of the 
Union might be preserved. They commended Crit- 

76 Cf. Montgomery Confederation, in Tuscaloosa Independent Moni- 
tor, Oct. 26; Moulton (Ala.) Democrat, in National Intelligencer, 
Aug. 29, i860. 

77 Bell carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. His popular 
vote in the South, which totaled over half a million, shows that the 
strength of the Constitutional Union party compared favorably with 
that of the Whig party in 1852 and of the American party in 1856. 
His largest support naturally came from the former strongholds of 
whiggery in the South. 



340 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tenden for the compromise proposals which he was 
urging in the Senate. 78 

But the disunion leaders rapidly got control of the 
situation. Less than six weeks after the presidential 
election, the South Carolina convention adopted an 
ordinance of secession. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, 
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas soon followed this 
example, so that before the middle of February, 1861, 
the entire lower South was supposedly out of the 
Union. A southern confederacy was organized and 
the officers of its government selected over two weeks 
prior to the inauguration of Lincoln. 

The Constitutional Union men in the legislatures 
and state conventions usually opposed the policy of 
withdrawing from the Union ; in all these states, how- 
ever, they found themselves in a hopeless minority. 
They carred on the struggle with more success in the 
border states where secession ordinances were either 
refused consideration or easily defeated. But the 
bombardment of Fort Sumter, followed promptly by 
Lincoln's proclamation calling upon the militia of the 
states and revealing the policy of coercion, aroused 
the proud spirit of the southerners. They resented 
this action, which, they saw, made certain the invasion 
of the South by northern troops — a final desecration 
of southern rights. The result was that Virginia, 
Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas now de- 

78 Some of them favored compensated emancipation of the slaves upon 
the initiative of the slave states in preference to the invasion of a north- 
ern army with " Freedom to Slaves " inscribed on its banner. See 
Geo. F. Salle to Crittenden, Mobile, Jan. 18, 1861, Crittenden MSS. 
After all, said Petigru, a leading South Carolina Whig, " there was 
something in the heart of every good man that told him that slavery 
was wrong ". Perry, Reminiscences of Public Men, 259. 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 341 

clared their independence and joined the Confederate 
States. 

Nothing remained for the former Union men of 
the South but to acquiesce in the will of the majority. 
Many of them still doubted the right of secession, 79 
but the question was no longer solely one of constitu- 
tional theory. The Union seemed doomed, a " revo- 
lution " had been proclaimed, and the cause of the 
South was their cause. They promptly rose to the 
defence of their section against the hostile invader 
from the North, resolved, as one of their ablest leaders 
declared, " to go to the devil with the rest ". 80 

Throughout the thirty years that preceded the deci- 
sion of the South to work out its own salvation as a 
separate political entity, the Democratic majority had 
been checked by an opposition composed of all the 
conservative elements of that section. If the former 
had more frequently controlled the situation by ar- 
raying under its banner the more humble citizens who 
were strong in the democracy of numbers, the latter 
included the representatives of property and of capi- 
tal, those inevitable incentives to conservatism. Slaves 
constituted a large portion of the property of the suc- 
cessful planter, that of the capitalist of the city or 
large town was of a more readily convertible type ; but 
their interests were essentially the same and they soon 
joined in political union to protect them. 

The planters of the lower South had early imbibed 
strict state rights doctrines, which can in that connec- 

79 See Jeremiah Clemens to Crittenden, Nov. 24, i860; F. M. Al- 
dridge to Crittenden, Dec. 31, i860, Crittenden MSS. 
so Perry, Reminiscences of Public Men, 259. 



342 WHIG PARTY IN THE SOUTH 

tion be regarded as evidence either of radicalism or of 
conservatism. That they themselves regarded state 
rights as a conservative factor which would protect 
them in their vested interests, is evident when we 
note the motives for the reversal of their policy in the 
early forties. Their opponents had formerly been 
Union men, at a time, however, when vigorous nation- 
alism seemed to menace the rights of the great proper- 
ty-owning class of the South. Later the planting 
aristocracy had formed a coalition with allies in the 
North to secure more certain protection against the 
disorganizing forces of Jacksonian Democracy. It 
was a reversal of policy to which the Democrats easily 
adapted themselves by taking up the advocacy of state 
rights, avowedly in defense of the slave institution. 
From this time on, the Whigs of the South were the 
Unionists, Unionism being a brand of conservatism 
which is more in keeping with our traditional ideas. 
Disorganizing sectional schemes always came from the 
Democracy and were always regarded with suspicion 
by its opponents, who saw in any attempt at disunion, 
with the consequences that were sure to follow, an 
inevitable source of injury to vested rights: hence 
they sang praises to the Union and to the blessings 
which it yielded the nation; hence they rallied to its 
defence, and welcomed all schemes of compromise by 
which its existence might be prolonged. In this spirit, 
they staved off the first effort in 1850 and 185 1 to 
withdraw the southern states from the Union and the 
moral influence of this victory delayed for nearly a 
decade the next and more nearly successful attempt. 
But five years of intensive and unveiled anti-slavery 
agitation in the North had raised in the minds of some 



ATTEMPTS AT REORGANIZATION, 1854-1861 343 

of the slaveholders the fear that their policy had been 
false. The younger generation was ready for some- 
thing more spirited and aggressive and looked with 
favor upon the withdrawal of the slave states from a 
compact that placed them at the mercy of a hostile 
majority in the North, a majority which failed to un- 
derstand the spirit of southern institutions. But the 
older heads, true to the teachings of southern Whig 
Unionism, generally sought until the last to prevent 
a settlement of the merits of the contestants in the 
sectional controversy by the arbitrament of arms. 
Finally, however, they realized that their ranks had 
been steadily depleted, that they had become an impo- 
tent minority, and that the contest was inevitable. At 
once they reminded themselves that the aim of those 
who had taken the lead in the withdrawal of the South 
was to protect its institution and its rights, that this 
was, after all, but the logical result of the old conserva- 
tive doctrines of the thirties. So they acquiesced in 
the situation and gave themselves and their sons to 
fight the battles of the South in defence of southern 
rights and southern independence. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
I. UNPUBLISHED SOURCES. 1 

Buchanan MSS. This collection is in the possession of the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Scattered through it 
are letters which contain material useful for this mono- 
graph. 

R. K. Cralle MSS., I vol. Some letters of value for the first 
decade of the Whig party. 

Crittenden MSS., 28 vols. Largely correspondence from Ken- 
tucky Whig leaders, but with many letters from the leading 
statesmen of the South, including Archer, Badger, Clay, 
Foster, Gentry, Mangum, Porter, Preston, Rives, Stephens, 
Taylor, Toombs, Scott, White, etc. A collection of ines- 
timable value for the subject. 

Fillmore MSS., 44 vols. (8436 letters). In the possession of 
the Buffalo Historical Society. A collection of private 
correspondence received by Fillmore as vice-president and 
president. Much of value, including letters from Cabell, 
Clay, Combs, Fillmore, Hilliard, Scott, and Webster. 

Floyd MSS. About thirty pieces, all letters from John Floyd. 
Very important for a study of the origin of the Whig party. 

Duff Green MSS., 1 vol. Parts of these have been printed or 
calendared in Publications of the Southern History Asso- 
ciation, VII. They show the relations of the Calhoun fol- 
lowing with the Whig party in the i83o's. 

Jackson MSS. This voluminous collection contains some 
material relating to the Whig party from the Democratic 
point of view. 

J. B. Kerr MSS. A few letters contain some interesting data. 

1 Unless otherwise specified, these collections of unpublished sources 
are to be found in the manuscripts division of the Library of Congress. 

345 



346 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Mangum MSS. A magnificent collection in the possession of 
Dr. Stephen B. Weeks, of Washington, D. C. Probably 
ten thousand manuscript letters, besides clippings, pam- 
phlets, and other data. Includes letters from Bell, Botts, 
Badger, Clay, Graham, Reverdy Johnson, Leigh, More- 
head, Stanly, Tyler, etc. Compares very favorably with 
the Crittenden collection. 

Wm. Polk MSS. A small collection of letters, the most impor- 
tant for our purposes being those from Willie P. Mangum. 

Porter MSS., 16 pieces. Reflects the character of Louisiana 
whiggery. 

Stephens MSS., about 20 pieces. All letters from Alexander 
H. Stephens. They contain important data for portions 
of the monograph. 

Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence. A large col- 
lection assembled and being edited for the American His- 
torical Association {Annual Report, 191 1, vol. II) by Prof. 
U. B. Phillips. An important body of material for the 
history of whiggery in Georgia and the South. 

Tyler MSS. Ten letters from the pen of the Virginia states- 
man written prior to his administration. Invaluable for 
the early history of the Whig party and for the compro- 
mise tariff. 

Van Buren MSS. Van Buren's southern correspondents pro- 
vide us with interesting material from the Democratic 
viewpoint. 

A few miscellaneous letters of H. S. Legare, Wm. C. Rives, 
L. W. Tazewell, Robert Toombs, A. H. H. Stuart, etc. 

II. DIARIES, SPEECHES, AND CONTEMPORARY 
CORRESPONDENCE. 

Adams, John Quincy. Memoirs; Comprising Parts of his 
Diary from 1795 to 1848, edited by Charles Francis Adams, 
12 vols., Philadelphia, 1874-1877. — A painstaking diary cov- 
ering a large part of his long public career. Adams was a 
keen observer and a good judge of men. Some of his 
memoranda regarding the activity of southern Whigs in 
Congress are most interesting. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 347 

Avary, Myrta Lockett, ed., Recollections, of Alexander H. 
Stephens, New York, 1910 — The body of the text is made 
up of Stephens's civil war diary. In the introductory por- 
tion is an interesting letter of some length in which 
Stephens reviews his political career. 

Bixby, W. K., Letters of Zachary Taylor from the Battlefields 
of the Mexican War, Rochester, 1908. — A collection essen- 
tial to an understanding of the campaign of 1848. 

Brown, Aaron V. Speeches, Congressional and Political, and 
other Writings. Collected and arranged by the editors of 
the Nashville Union and American. Nashville, 1854. — 
This collection is of value because of the material on the 
Nashville Convention of 1850. 

Calhoun, John C. Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, edited 
by J. F. Jameson. Printed in American Historical Asso- 
ciation, Annual Report, 1899, vol. II, Washington, 1900. — 
A large and excellent collection. A fine body of material 
for southern party history. 

The Works of John C. Calhoun, edited by R. K. 

Cralle, 6 vols., New York, 1854- 1855. — An early collection, 
generally satisfactory when supplemented by the fore- 
going work. 

Claiborne, J. F. H., Life and Correspondence of John A. 
Quitman, 2 vols., New York, i860. — An excellent biography 
containing numerous and valuable selections from Quit- 
man's correspondence. The narrative portions have almost 
the value of source material, due to the author's close per- 
sonal relations with Quitman and to his intimate connec- 
tion with the history of Mississippi for several decades. 
I Coleman, Mrs. Chapman, The Life of John J. Crittenden, with 
selections from his correspondence and speeches, 2 vols., 
Philadelphia, 1871. — A fine selection of letters, public and 
private. Comparison with the original manuscripts, how- 
ever, shows them to be cut, excerpted, and altered without 
any indication or explanation. There are other evidences 
of faulty editing. 

Cleveland, H., Alexander H. Stephens in public and private, 
Philadelphia, 1866. — Over two-thirds of the volume of 
&33 pages is formally devoted to " Speeches, Letters, etc." 



348 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Many selections from source material are scattered through 
the biographical sketch. 

Clingman, Thomas L., Speeches and Writings, Raleigh, 1878. — 
A collection of his speeches supplemented by a review of 
his political career. 

Colton, Calvin, Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry 
Clay, 6 vols., New York, 1854. — An excellent collection of 
speeches ; the volume of private correspondence which 
Colton selected from a large collection is extremely valu- 
able. 

Fillmore, Millard. Millard Fillmore Papers, 2 vols. In Buffalo 
Historical Society, Publications, vols. X, XI, Buffalo, 
1907. — A collection of letters, speeches, and state papers 
arranged chronologically. The portions dating within the 
period after 1848 were the most essential for the present 
study. 

Hamilton, J. G. de R., The Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, 
2 vols., Raleigh, 1909. — Contributes but little to party 
history, even to that of North Carolina. 

Hill, Benjamin H., Jr. Senator Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia, 
His Life, Speeches and Writings, Atlanta, 1891. — Contains 
important material for history of political parties in 
Georgia after 1850. 

Hilliard, Henry W., Speeches and Addresses, New York, 1855. 
— A contemporary and incomplete collection. 

Johnston, R. M., and Browne, W. H., Life of Alexander H. 
Stephens, Philadelphia, 1878. — A satisfactory biography 
embodying an excellent collection of letters to Linton 
Stephens, his younger brother, and selections from 
speeches. 

Legare, Hugh S. Writings of Hugh S. Legare, edited by his 
sister, 2 vols., Charleston, 1846. — Important for an under- 
standing of political parties in South Carolina. 

Moore, John Bassett, The Works of James Buchanan, 12 vols., 
Philadelphia, 1908-1911. — A systematic collection including 
important and valuable correspondence. 

Nicolay, J. G., and Hay, J., Complete Works of Abraham Lin- 
coln, 1 1 vols., New York, 1894. — The first two volumes con- 
sist of valuable private correspondence. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 349 

Prentiss, George L., Memoir of Sargent S. Prentiss, 2 vols., 
New York, 1855. — The memoir, by a brother, is simply a 
frame-work for numerous letters. Important for the party 
history of Mississippi. 

Quaife, M. M., The Diary of James K. Polk, 4 vols., Chicago, 
1910. — A painstaking diary of great value. Polk's acute 
observations throw much light on party relations during 
his administration. 

Seward, William H. An Autobiography from 1801-1834; with 
a Memoir of his Life, etc., 1832-1872, by Frederick W. 
Seward, 3 vols., New York, 1891. — An important work. 
The memoir is largely made up of correspondence. 

Tyler, Lyon G., Letters and Times of the Tylers, 3 vols., Rich- 
mond and Williamsburg, 1884-1896. — Includes a careful 
and generally accurate review of the party history of the 
South during the thirties and forties. By far the most 
valuable parts are the numerous letters of contemporaries. 

Van Tyne, C. H., The Letters of Daniel Webster, New York, 
1902. — A careful and excellent selection from the collec- 
tions of Webster letters that have survived. 

Webster, Fletcher, Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, 
Boston, 1857. — A collection with many faults and entirely 
superseded by the preceding work. 

White, Hugh L. Memoir of Hugh L. White, with selections 
from his speeches and correspondence, edited by Nancy 
N. Scott, Philadelphia, 1856. — An important body of mate- 
rial for the history of parties in Tennessee in the thirties. 

III. MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

Baldwin, Joseph G., Flush Times in Alabama and Mississippi, 
New York, 1853. — A volume of interesting reminiscences 
of men and events in these states. 

Benton, Thomas Hart, Thirty Years' View, or a History of the 
Workings of the American Government for Thirty Years, 
from 1820 to 1850, 2 vols., New York, 1854. — A brilliant 
review of the leading events of his long career in the 
United States Senate; generally accurate. 

Brownlow, W. G., Sketches of the Rise, Progress and Decline 
of Secession; with a narrative of personal adventures 



350 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

among the rebels, Philadelphia, 1862. — The autobiographi- 
cal sketch in the early portion acquaints us with his politi- 
cal views and explains the basis of his opposition to seces- 
sion and his adherence to the Union. The work illustrates 
the eccentricities of the " Fighting Parson." 

Claiborne, J. F. H., Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and 
State, 1 vol., Jackson, 1880. — Nominally a history of Mis- 
sissippi, the later portion embodies the reminiscences of a 
close connection with the affairs of the state. Contains 
useful material relative to the origin of the Whig party 
there. 

Claiborne, John H., Seventy-five years in Old Virginia, New 
York, 1904. — The author was of Whig antecedents and 
connections but was one of those of the second generation 
who began their political careers as Democrats. 

Davis, Reuben, Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians, 
Boston, 1889. — The author was prominent in the political 
affairs of North Mississippi. The account is rambling but 
the local coloring is good. 

Foote, Henry S., The Bench and Bar of the South and South- 
west, St. Louis, 1876. — Without attempting anything bio- 
graphical in character, the volume consists of interesting 
personal reminiscences of the public men, chiefly of Mis- 
sissippi and Tennessee. 

Casket of Reminiscences, Washington, 1874. — Of less 

value than the succeeding work, which it in part duplicates. 

y War of the Rebellion; or, Scylla and Charybdis, 

New York, 1866. — A careful, faithful, and unprejudiced 
review of the sectional struggle and its culmination in civil 
war. He deprecates the sway of ultraism in the South and 
praises the moderation of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. 

Fulkerson, H. S., Random Recollections of Early Days in Mis- 
sissippi, Vicksburg, 1885 —Of some value in portraying the 
local situation. 

Garrett, William, Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama for 
thirty years, Atlanta, 1872. — The most important work of 
the sort on Alabama by a man in intimate touch with the 
political affairs of the state. 

Gilmer, George R., Sketches of some of the first settlers of 
Upper Georgia, of the Cherokees, and of the author, New 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 351 

York, 1855.— A careful work, which aids in clearing up the 

complicated condition of political parties in Georgia. A 

frank exposition of the author's own political affiliations. 

Goode, John, Recollections of a Life Time, New York, 1906.— 

Throws some light on political parties in Virginia. 
Greeley, Horace, Recollections of a Busy Life, New York, 
1868.— An interesting summary of the observations of a 
skillful politician and journalist. 

\ The American Conflict, 2 vols., Hartford, 1864.— 

An excellent review of the sectional controversy in its 
many phases. 
Green, Duff, Facts and Suggestions, Biographical, Historical, 
Financial and Political, New York, 1866.—A spirited but 
controversial review of his public career and political be- 
liefs, embodying some private correspondence and other 
source material. 
Hamilton, James A., Reminiscences, New York, 1869.— Of little 

value for the present study. 
Harvey, Peter, Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Web- 
ster, Boston, 1901.— Contains some material relative to 
Webster's presidential aspirations in 1852 when Harvey 
was Webster's closest friend. 
• Hilliard, Henry W., Politics and Pen Pictures at home and 
abroad, New York, 1892.— A careful survey by a leading 
southern Whig of the more important political events that 
fell within his extended observation of public affairs. 
Holden, W. W. Memoirs of W. W. H olden, edited by W. K. 
Boyd (John Lawson Monographs of the Trinity College 
Historical Society), Durham, N. C, 191 1.— A disappoint- 
ing body of reminiscences, written late in life, containing 
some material relative to political parties in North Caro- 
lina. 

[Jennings, D. S. ?], Nine Years of Democratic Rule in Mis- 
sissippi, 1838-1847, Jackson, 1847.— An attempt to portray 
the mismanagement of the financial affairs of the state 
during the long period of Democratic control. 
1 Julian, George W., Political Recollections, 1840-1872, Chicago, 
1884.— Deals chiefly with the anti-slavery movement, in 
which Julian took a prominent part. 



352 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Mayo, Robert, Political Sketches of eight years in Washington, 
Baltimore, 1839. — A bitter arraignment of "Jacksonian 
Democracy " by a highly educated Virginian who had for- 
merly served in the Jackson ranks. 

Montgomery, F. A., Reminiscences of a Mississippian in War 
and Peace, Cincinnati, 1901. — Contains little information 
of value for the present study. 

Sargent, Nathan, Public Men and Events, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 
1875. — Sargent was in intimate touch with the workings of 
the Whig party and therefore able to speak with a degree 
of authority as to developments within it. 

Scott, Winfield, Memoirs of Lieut-General Scott, 2 vols., New 
York, 1864. — Unsatisfactory so far as it attempts to ex- 
plain Scott's political connections and his motives in the 
campaign of 1852. 

Weed, Thurlow. The Life of Thurlow Weed, 2 vols. (vol. I, 
Autobiography, edited by his daughter, Harriet A. Weed ; 
vol. II, Memoir by his grandson, Thurlow Weed Barnes). 
Both volumes embody a fine assortment of contemporary 
correspondence. 

Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave 
Power in America, 3 vols., Boston, 1872. — A detailed study 
of the sectional controversy embodying his personal obser- 
vations of the anti-slavery movement and of party history 
in general. 

Wise, Henry A., Seven Decades of the Union, Philadelphia, 
1 881. — The historical value of the work is lessened by the 
attempt to vindicate Tyler and his administration. It has, 
however, a certain value as a source. 

IV. BIOGRAPHIES AND COLLECTIONS OF 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Ashe, Samuel A., ed., Biographical History of North Carolina, 
7 vols., Greensboro, N. C, 1905-1908. — A superb collection 
of biographical sketches, carefully written and edited. 
Most important for our purposes are those of Mangum, 
Badger, Stanly, Morehead, Manly, etc. 

Bancroft, Frederic, The Life of William H. Seward, 2 vols., 
New York, 1900. — A careful treatment of Seward's career 
in its many connections. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 353 

Butler, Pierce, Judah P. Benjamin, Philadelphia, 1907. — One of 
the best biographies in the southern field. It treats fully 
the local political situation in Louisiana. 

Caldwell, J. W., "John Bell of Tennessee," in American His- 
torical Review, IV. — A suggestive article which, in the 
absence of a suitable biography, gives the main facts of 
the political career of the Tennessee Whig leader. 

Claiborne, J. F. H., Life and Times of General Sam. Dale, the 
Mississippi partisan, New York, i860. — A satisfactory 
biography. 

Colton, Calvin, The Life and Times of Henry Clay, 2 vols., 
New York, 1846. — The intimate connection of the biog- 
rapher with his subject and the authorized character of 
the work give it much the same value as a source. 

Collins, Lewis, History of Kentucky, revised by his son, Rich- 
ard H. Collins, 2 vols., Covington, Ky., 1882. — Chiefly 
valuable for the very meagre sketches of the public men 
of that state. 

Curtis, George T., Life of Daniel Webster, 2 vols., New York, 
1870. — A satisfactory biography by the son of one of Web- 
ster's literary executors. 

Davis, Mrs. Varina J., Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the 
Confederate States: a Memoir, 2 vols., New York, 1890. — 
Mrs. Davis was the daughter of an old-line Whig and 
gives the Whig point of view up to 1845. 

Dodd, W. E., Life of Nathaniel Macon, Raleigh, 1903. — A small 
but scholarly work. 

Dowd, Jerome, Sketches of Prominent Living North Caro- 
linians, Raleigh, 1888. — The sketches are meagre but of 
some value. 

DuBose, J. W., Life and Times of W. L. Yancey, Birmingham, 
1892. — A large and carefully prepared volume containing 
considerable material relative to the history of political 
parties in the South. 

Garland, Hugh A., Life of John Randolph of Roanoke, 2 vols., 
New York (12th ed.), 1859. — A satisfactory biography. 

Grayson, William J., James Louis Petigru, a Biographical 
Sketch, New York, 1866. — Its treatment of Petigru's politi- 
cal views is very inadequate. 
24 



354 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Lynch, James D., Bench and Bar of Mississippi, New York, 
1881. — A series of short sketches of the men who were 
among the political leaders of the South. 

McCormick, J. G., Personnel of the Convention of 1861 (James 
Sprunt Historical Monographs, University of North Caro- 
lina Pubs., No. 1), Chapel Hill, N. C, 1900. — A survey of 
the previous records of the men who passed on the ques- 
tion of the secession of North Carolina. . 

Miller, S. F., Bench and Bar of Georgia, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 
1858. — Of value in tracing the career of local Whig leaders. 
Miller was himself an active Whig and a former editor 
of a party organ and prints in the appendices some valu- 
able letters. Some source material cited in the body of 
the text. 

O'Neall, J. B., Biographical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of 
South Carolina, 2 vols., Charleston, 1859. — The sketches 
are meagre and of but little value. 

Parton, James, Life of Andrew Jackson, 3 vols., New York, 
i860. — An early work valuable for the detail embodied. 

Pendleton, Louis, Alexander H. Stephens, Philadelphia, 1908. 
— An excellent biography. Stephens's career is treated 
with a suitable background. 

Perry, B. F., Biographical Sketches of Eminent American 
Statesmen, Philadelphia, 1887. — The sketches are interest- 
ing and suggestive. 

Reminiscences of Public Men, Philadelphia, 1883. 

— Interesting sketches of the careers of his associates in 
South Carolina. Those of Waddy Thompson, James L. 
Petigru, Richard Yeadon, and Hugh S. Legare, are the 
more important for our purposes. 

Phillips, U. B., The Life of Robert Toombs, New York, 1913 — 
One of the best biographies in the southern field. Makes 
excellent use of the Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Corre- 
spondence. 

Schurz, Carl, Henry Clay (American Statesman Series), 2 
vols., Boston, 1887. — A well-known work of proved merit. 

Shields, J. D., Life and Times of S. S. Prentiss, Philadelphia, 
1884. — A sympathetic review of the career of this famous 
adopted son of the South. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 355 

Shipp, J. E. D., Giant Days, or the Life and Times of William 
H. Crazvford, Americus, Ga., 1909. — A small work but the 
only extensive biography of Crawford. It embraces ex- 
cerpts from source material and has an appendix in which 
important letters are printed. 

Stille, Charles J., " The Life and Services of Joel R. Poinsett," 
in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XII 
(1888). — Special emphasis placed on the nullification era. 
Eight important Jackson letters printed; also a sketch of 
the nullification controversy by a contemporary. 

Stovall, P. A., Robert Toombs: statesman, speaker, soldier, 
sage, New York, 1892. — A valuable biography. 

Wheeler, Henry G., History of Congress, biographical and 
political, vol. I, New York, 1848. — Consists of a series of 
sketches of certain members of Congress, including a 
satisfactory sketch of Edward C. Cabell, the Florida Whig 
leader. 

Wheeler, John H., Historical Sketches of North Carolina: 
1 584-18 51, 2 vols, in one, Philadelphia, 185 1— A brief 
survey of the history of North Carolina followed by a 
series of meagre biographical sketches grouped by counties. 

Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and 

eminent North Carolinians, Columbus, 1884. — A later and 
more satisfactory work with more extensive biographical 
sketches. 

W[hitaker, J. A.], Sketches of Life and Character in Louisiana, 
New Orleans, 1847. — Short sketches of the bench and bar 
of that state originally published in the New Orleans 
papers. A pamphlet of 85 pp. 

*Wise, Barton H., Life of Henry A. Wise, New York, 1899.— 
An excellent biography. 

V. MONOGRAPHS AND SPECIAL ARTICLES AND 
WORKS. 

Anon., The Sons of the Sires: a History of the Rise, Progress, 
and Destiny of the American Party, by an American, 
Philadelphia, 1855. — A contemporary defence of the 
American party. 



356 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ambler, Charles H., Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 
1S61, Chicago, 1910. — A successful study of a broad field 
and a long period. 

Bassett, J. S., Anti-slavery Leaders, in North Carolina (Johns 
Hopkins University Studies, series XVI), 1898. 

" Suffrage in the State of North Carolina, 1776-1861," 

in American Historical Association, Report, 1895, Wash- 
ington, 1896. 

Brown, William G., A History of Alabama, New York, 1900. — 
An excellent little history, intended for use in the schools, 
embodying considerable valuable detail. 

Chandler, J. A. C, History of Representation in Virginia 
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, series XIV), 1896. 

' — History of Suffrage in Virginia (id., series XIX), 

1901. 
1 Chandler, J. A. C, et ah, The South in the Building of the 
Nation, 12 vols., Richmond, 1909. — A careful survey by 
specialists of the various phases of southern development. 

Fiske, John, " Harrison, Tyler, and the Whig Coalition," in 
Essays Historical and Literary, vol. I, New York, 1902. 
• Franklin, F. G., The Legislative History of Naturalization in 
the United States, Chicago, 1906. — A satisfactory survey 
of the subject apart from the motivating causes. 

Garner, J. W., " The First Struggle over Secession in (Missis- 
sippi," in Mississippi Historical Society, Publications, IV, 
Oxford, Miss., 1901. 

Hodgson, Joseph, The Cradle of the Confederacy, or the Times 
of Troup, Quitman, and Yancey, Mobile, 1876. — One of 
the first works to point out the importance of the early 
agitation in the South for a southern confederacy. 

Houston, D. F., A Critical Study of Nullification in South 
Carolina (Harvard Historical Studies, vol. Ill), New 
York, 1896. — A careful piece of work, but it would hardly 
seem that it makes the most out of the possibilities of the 
subject. 

Hudson, Frederic, Journalism in the United States from 1690 to 
1872, New York, 1873. — Includes a good survey of the 
press at Washington, D. C. 

Johnson, Allen, " The Nationalizing Influence of Party," in 
Yale Review, XV, New Haven, 1906.— A suggestive article. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 357 

Lee, John H, The Origin and Progress of the American Party 
in Politics, Philadelphia, 1855. — Largely devoted to the 
local Philadelphia movement during the forties. 

Macy, Jesse, Political Parties in the United States, 1846-1861, 
New York, 1900. — A careful treatment of the general sub- 
ject. 

Mellen, G. R, " Henry W. Hilliard and William L. Yancey," 
in Sewanee Review, XVII, 1909. — A brief account of the 
memorable contest in 1851. 

Ormsby, R. McK., History of the Whig Party, Boston, i860 — 
Contains little of value. The title is misleading. 

Phillips, U. B., Georgia and State Rights, in American His- 
torical Association, Report, 1900, I, Washington, 1901.— 
Makes a valuable survey of political parties in that state 
up to 1861. 

" The South Carolina Federalists," in American His- 
torical Review, XIV, 1909. 

" The Southern Whigs, 1834-1854," in Turner Essays 



in American History, New York, 1910. — An extremely 
suggestive essay based upon extensive and thorough re- 
searches. 

Reed, John C, The Brothers' War, Boston, 1905. — A highly 
suggestive modern interpretation of the sectional struggle. 

Rowland, Dunbar [ed.], Encyclopedia of Mississippi History, 
2 vols., Madison, 1907. — The numerous articles in alpha- 
betical arrangement are all careful bits of historical work. 

Schaper, W. A., Sectionalism and Representation in South 
Carolina, in American Historical Association, Report, 
1900, I, Washington, 1901. 

Schmeckebier, L. F., History of the Know Nothing Party in 
Maryland (Johns Hopkins University Studies, series 
XVII), 1899. — A short treatment of the nativist movement 
in Maryland in the fifties. 

Scisco, L. D., Political Nativism in New York State (Columbia 
University Studies), New York, 1901. — Makes a careful 
survey of the home of nativism with some reference to the 
movement in general. 

Smith, Justin H., The Annexation of Texas, New York, 191 1. 
— An able and thorough treatment of an important subject. 



358 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Stanwood, Edward, A History of the Presidency, Boston, 1906. 

— A standard work of well-known merit. 
American Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth 

Century, 2 vols., Boston, 1903. — A very successful study. 
Wagstaff, H. McG., State Rights and Political Parties in North 

Carolina, 1776-1861 (Johns Hopkins University Studies, 

series XXIV), 1906. — A work of considerable merit; its 

details are sometimes open to criticism. 
Whitney, Thomas R., A Defense of the American Policy, New 

York, 1856. — The best contemporary work outlining the 

causes for the nativist movement and tracing its history. 

VI. PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 
1. Federal. 

The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, Washington, 

1853. 
DeBow, J. D. B., Statistical View of the United States . . . 

Being a Compendium of the seventh Census, Washington, 

1854. 

The Congressional Globe, 1834-1873, 108 vols., Washington. 

Congressional Documents. 

Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
Congress of the United States, 1830-1860, Washington. 

Register of Debates of Congress, 1825-1837, 39 vols., Wash- 
ington. 

2. State. 

Journals of the House of Delegates and Senate of Vir- 
ginia, 1846-1852, Richmond. 

Journals of the House of Representatives and Senate of Mis- 
souri, 1836-1860, Bowling Green and Jefferson City. 

Journals of the Proceedings of the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of Florida, 1845-1861, Tallahassee. 

3. Laws of the Southern States. 

Acts of the General Assembly of Alabama, 1838-1860, published 
annually and biennially, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery. 

Laws . . . by the General Assembly of Maryland, 1830-1860, 
1841-1859. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 359 

Acts of the General Assembly of Georgia, 1829-1861, published 
annually and biennially, Milledgeville and Columbus. 

The Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of Florida, 
1845-1859, Tallahassee. 

Acts of the General Assembly of . . . Kentucky, 1830-1860, 
published annually, Frankfort. 

Acts of the Legislature of Louisiana, 1828-1861, published an- 
nually, New Orleans. 

Laws . . . by the General Assembly of Maryland, 1830-1860, 
published annually and biennially, Annapolis. 

Laws of the State of Mississippi, 1840-1860, published annually 
and biennially, Jackson. 

Laws of the State of Missouri, 1832- 1861, published biennially, 
Jefferson City. 

Acts passed by the General Assembly of North Carolina, 1830- 
1860, published annually and biennially, Raleigh. 

Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of South Caro- 
lina, 1831-1832, 2 vols., Columbia, 1832. 

The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, 1857- 1889, 20 vols., 
Columbia, 1858- 1890. 

Acts of the State of Tennessee, 1841-1858, published biennially, 
Murfreesborough, Knoxville, and Nashville. 

Acts of the General Assembly of . . . Virginia, 1830-1866, pub- 
lished annually and biennially. 

VII. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS. 

The American Almanac, 1830-1861, 32 vols., published annually, 

Boston, 
Ames, H. V., State Documents on Federal Relations: the States 
and the United States, Philadelphia, 191 1. — A most worthy 
collection, carefully edited, filling a long-felt want. 
Bromwell, Wm. J., History of Immigration, 1819-1855, New 
York, 1856. — Consists of a series of statistical tables rela- 
tive to foreign immigration. 
- Cooper, T. V., and Fenton, H. T., American Politics, Philadel- 
phia, 1882. 
1 Cluskey, M. W., The Political Text-Book, or Encyclopedia, 
Philadelphia, 1858. — Includes much material not readily 
accessible elsewhere. 



3<5o BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Greeley, H., and Cleveland, J. R, A Political Text-Book for 
i860, New York, i860. — Includes all national platforms 
up to i860, returns of presidential elections since 1836, be- 
sides important letters and speeches. 

' Hambleton, James P., A History of the Political Campaign in 
Virginia, in 1855, Richmond, 1856. — A collection of selec- 
tions from the party prints and other documents. 

* Pike, James S., First Blows of the Civil War. The ten years 
of preliminary conMct in the United States, New York, 
1879. — The progress of the sectional struggle shown by 
selections from the contemporary press and private cor- 
respondence. An important storehouse of material rela- 
tive to the sectionalization of the Whig party. 
Richardson, James D., Compilation of the Messages and 
Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, 10 vols., Washington, 
1 896- 1 899. 

» Sanderson, John P., The Views and Opinions of American 
Statesmen on Foreign Immigration, Philadelphia, 1856. — 
" Being a collection of statistics of population, pauperism, 
crime, etc." The documents are generally well selected. 
Tribune Almanac and Politicians' Register, 1856-1861, pub- 
lished annually, New York. — A continuation of the work 
next cited. The series contains the most available collec- 
tion of election returns by counties to be obtained. 
Whig Almanac and United States Register, 1838-1855, pub- 
lished annually, New York. 

VIII. MAGAZINES AND PERIODICALS. 

Besides articles on special topics the works cited usually 
contain collections of private correspondence or single letters 
and other source material. 

American Historical Association, Annual Reports, 1889, etc., 

Washington, 1890- . 
American Historical Review, New York, 1895- . 
The American Whig Review, 16 vols., New York, 1845-1852. — 

A monthly organ of the Whig party. Contains important 

articles, biographical sketches, etc. 
1 DeBow, J. D. B., Review and Industrial Resources, Statistics, 

etc., 34 vols., New Orleans, 1846- 1864. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 361 

The Gulf States Historical Magazine, 2 vols., Birmingham, 
1903-1904. — An admirable publication. 

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June, 1850-June, 1861 (vols. 
I-XXII), New York, 1850-1861.— The monthly summary 
of current events in part takes the place of Niles' Register, 
which suspended publication in 1849. 

The Land We Love, 6 vols., 1866-1869, Charlotte, North Caro- 
lina. 

Mississippi Historical Society, Publications, Oxford, Miss., 
1899- . — One of the best of state historical society publi- 
cations. 
1 Niles' Weekly {National) Register, 76 vols., Baltimore, Wash- 
ington, and Philadelphia, 1811-1849. — A great storehouse 
of valuable source material. 

North Carolina Historical Society, James Sprunt Historical 
Monographs, Chapel Hill, 1900- . — The third number con- 
tains important Macon letters. 

Our Living and Our Dead, 4 vols., Raleigh, 1874- 1876. 

Randolph-Macon College, The John P. Branch Historical 
Papers, Richmond, 1901- . — The second and third numbers 
contain important letters written by Macon and by Thomas 
Ritchie, editor of the Richmond Enquirer. 

Southern History Association, Publications, Washington, 
1897- . — The seventh volume (1903) prints a series of 
Duff Green letters. 

Southern Literary Journal and Magazine of Arts, 6 vols., 
Charleston, 1835-1838. 

Trinity College (N. C.) Historical Society, Annual Publi- 
cation of Historical Papers, Durham, 1897- . 

The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, 43 vols., 
Washington, 1 838-1 859. 

William and Mary College, Quarterly Historical Magazine, 
Williamsburg, 1892- . 

IX. NEWSPAPERS. 

The public prints constitute a chief source for the party 
history of our period, both because of the intense partisan char- 
acter of almost every journal and because of the prime impor- 
tance of the editorial column to the early nineteenth-century 



362 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

reader. They have been used, however, critically and with due 
caution. The list includes the leading papers of both parties 
at the capital for the entire period. They were supplemented 
by the leading metropolitan dailies of the North and by the 
local Whig journals of the southern states. Circumstances 
have combined to make the dependence upon them greater for 
the latter part of the study. It is fortunate that the files become 
more complete after 1848. For the earlier period, Niles' 
Register renders inestimable service in excerpting the local 
journals. Itself Whig in politics, it was ever on the lookout 
for material relative to whiggery in the South, where the situa- 
tion was always precarious. With its ending in 1849, we lose a 
most valuable source. The later period, too, is scanty in con- 
temporary correspondence, both printed and manuscript. From 
the forties on, therefore, newspapers play, of necessity, a more 
important role as sources. For the character and importance 
of special journals, see chapter iii. The Whig papers are in 
certain instances supplemented by those of Democratic con- 
nections. 

Washington. 

The Daily Globe, 1831-1845 (Dem.). 

The Madisonian, 1837-1841. 

Daily National Intelligencer, 1830-1861. 

The Daily Republic, 1849-1853. 

The Southern Press, 1850- 1852 (Ind.). 

United States Telegraph, 1830-1837. 

The Washington Union, 1846-1858 (Dem.). 
New York. 

New York Morning Express, 1848-1855. 

New York Herald, 1850- 1853. 

The Log Cabin, 1840-1841. 

New York Tribune, 1852, 1858. 
Philadelphia. 

Evening Bulletin, 1847-1852 (Ind.). 

Public Ledger, 1848-1850, 1855-1856 (Ind.). 

North American and United States Gazette, 1850- 1852. 

Pennsylvanian, 1852 (Dem.). 
The Boston Daily Atlas, 1844. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 363 

Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 1852. 
Maryland. 

Baltimore Clipper, 1849-1853. 

Baltimore American, 1849-1853. 
Virginia. 

Richmond Daily Whig, 1849-1852. 

The Richmond Republican, 1849- 1850. 
North Carolina. 

Raleigh Register and North Carolina Gazette, 1841. 

Raleigh Star and North Carolina Gazette, 1844. 

Washington Whig, 1842. 

North State Whig (Washington), 1850-1851, 1853. 

The Tri-Weekly Commercial (Wilmington), 1852. 

The Daily Journal (Wilmington), 1854 (Dem.). 
South Carolina. 

Charleston Daily Courier, 1833-1844, 1845-1854. 

The Southern Weekly Patriot (Greenville), 1851. 
Georgia. 

The Columbus Enquirer, 1841-1847. 

The Southern Recorder (Milledgeville), 1843, 1851-1852. 

The Savannah Daily Republican, 1836-1860. 
Florida. 

The Weekly Floridian (Tallahassee), 1846-1854. 

Pensacola Gazette, 1848-1853. 

Alabama. 

Mobile Daily Advertiser, 1849-1860. 

Daily Alabama Journal (Montgomery), 1850-1853. 

Huntsville Advocate, 1849-1852. 

The Gazette (Florence), 1849-1851. 

Independent Monitor (Tuscaloosa), 1859-1860. 
Mississippi. 

The Southron (Jackson), 1849-1850. 

Flag of the Union (Jackson), 1850-1853. 

The Natchez Weekly Courier, 1850-1851. 

The Daily Co urier (Natchez), 1853. 

Southern Argus (Houston), 1854 (Dem.). 

The Southern Journal (Monticello), 1853-1854 (Dem.). 

The Vicksburg Weekly Sentinel, 1854 (Dem.). 



364 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Louisiana. 

The Daily Picayune (New Orleans), 1847-1853. 

The New Orleans Bee, 1849-185 1. 

New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, 1846-1856. 

Tennessee. 

The Memphis Daily Eagle, 1843-1845, 1851. 
Memphis Daily Eagle and Enquirer, 1852-1854. 
Republican Banner (Nashville), 1849- 1861. 

Kentucky. 

The Frankfort Commonwealth, 1841, 1849. 
The Louisville Daily Journal, 1841, 1849-1852. 

Missouri. 

The Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 1849-1854. 
St. Louis Daily Intelligencer, 1850-185 1. 

X. PAMPHLETS. 

Account of Great Whig Festival held in Baltimore, Novem- 
ber 12, 1835, Baltimore, 1835. 

Proceedings of the Democratic Whig Convention, December 
4, 1839, for the purpose of nomination of President and 
Vice-President. 

Address to the People of Maryland, by the Whig Central Com- 
mittee of Maryland, , 1840. 

Proceedings of the Caucus of Whig Members of Congress, 
September 11, 13, 1841. — This was the caucus that read 
Tyler out of the party. 

Defence of the Whigs, by a member of the twenty-seventh 
Congress, New York, 1844. 

Secret History of the Perfidies, Intrigues, and Corruptions of 
the Tyler Dynasty, etc., Washington and New York, 1845. 
— Issued in eight numbers, weekly. 

Sketch of the Life and Public Services of Zachary Taylor, 
People's candidate for the Presidency, Washington, 1848. 

Taylor Text-book and Ready Reckoner, Baltimore, 1848. 

Cass and Taylor on the Slavery Question, Boston, 1848. 

General Taylor and the Wilmot Proviso, , 1848. 

To the Whigs of Virginia, by John M. Botts, March 8, 1848. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 365 

The Position and Course of the South, by W. H. Trescott, 
Charleston, 1850. 

On the Dissolution of the Union. Letter of W. J. Grayson to 
Governor W. B. Seabrook, Charleston, 1850. 

A Letter on Southern Wrongs and Southern Remedies, by 
" One of the People ", Charleston, 1850. 

The Rightful Remedy. Addressed to Slaveholders of the 
South, by Edward B. Bryan, Charleston, 1850, 

Proceedings and Speeches at Whig Ratification meeting held 
in Washington City on June 28, 1852, Washington, 1852. 

Address of T. L. Clingman to the citizens of North Carolina, 
Washington, January 12, 1853. 

Why old line Whigs should attach themselves to the Demo- 
cratic party, by Thomas S. Gholson. 

Whig Policy analyzed and illustrated, by Josiah Quincy, Boston, 
1856. 

Address of Old Line Whig, 1856. — In favor of Buchanan for 
president. 
+ Americanism contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism, and 
Bogus Democracy in the light of Reason, History, and 
Scripture, by Wm. G. Brownlow, Nashville, 1856. 
* Protection to American Industry. Views of John Bell, Wash- 
ington, 1858. 

John Bell: His Past History connected with the Public Serv- 
ice, Nashville, i860. 

John Bell, Life, Speeches and Public Services, New York, 
i860. 

Portrait and Sketch of Parson Brownlow, the Tennessee 
Patriot, Indianapolis, 1862.— The copy used bore correc- 
tions in Brownlow's handwriting. 

Parson Brownlow, and the Unionists of East Tennessee: with 
a sketch of his life, New York, 1862. 

XL GENERAL HISTORIES. 

The American Nation: A History. Edited by A. B. Hart. 
MacDonald, William, Jacksonian Democracy, 1829-1837, 

New York, 1906. 
Hart, A. B., Slavery and Abolition, 1831-1841, New York, 
1906. 



366 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Garrison, Geo. P., Westward Extension, 1841-1850, New 
York, 1906. 
v Smith, T. H., Parties and Slavery, 1850-1859, New York, 

1906. 
>>' Chadwick, F. E., Causes of the Civil War, 1859-1861, New 
York, 1906. 
McMaster, J. B., A History of the People of the United States, 

8 vols., New York, 1888-1913. 
Rhodes, James F., History of the United States from the 

Compromise of 1850, 7 vols., New York, 1896-1906. 
Schouler, James, History of the United States of America, 

under the Constitution, 6 vols., New York, 1880- 1899. 
Von Hoist, H., The Constitutional and Political History of the 
United States, trans, by J. J. Lalor and A. B. Mason, 
8 vols., Chicago, 1877- 1892. 



APPENDIX. 
MAPS. 

The accompanying maps are of importance as a means of 
indicating the local areas of Whig strength in the South. The 
election returns are plotted by counties, but the boundary lines 
between such contiguous counties as have the same propor- 
tionate vote have been omitted. The map showing the relative 
proportions of white and negro population in 1850 (plate VI) 
is plotted in the same way. Majorities are represented in three 
grades. This is essential, as mere majority would be an 
indefinite indication of a strength somewhere between 50 
per cent and 100 per cent of the total count. Furthermore, a 
40 to 50 per cent minority is often nearly as indicative of 
strength as an actual majority. 

Upon careful analytical and comparative study, these maps 
will be found to throw light on the character of the political 
parties in the ante-bellum South. In general, they show that 
from the election of 1836 to the election of 1852 there was a 
continuance of Whig and Democratic strength or weakness in 
certain definite regions. The regions of Whig strength are to 
be identified with those districts which were drawn by eco- 
nomic interests to the support of the "American system'*, or 
with those in which the negro-slave-plantation system predomi- 
nated. The first conclusion we should expect on d priori 
grounds; the other is one which requires more proof, as less 
to be expected. The maps, however, leave little room for doubt 
on this score. For a comparison of the maps plotting the 
presidential votes with the one indicating white or negro-slave 
preponderance shows that wherever there was a negro ma- 
jority or a significant minority there could be found, with no 
important exceptions, a Whig majority or uncertain Demo- 
cratic control. 



367 




WHIG MAJORITY 
E23 50-60$ of total vote 
g§§| 60-75* of total vote 
|^H over 75* of total vote 



DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY 

E3 50 60* of total vote 
( pffi 60-75* of total vote 
tirga over 75% of total vote 





WHIG MA 

E3 50-60# < 
H 60-75# o 
M over 75ft 




PRESIDENTIAL 

ELECTION 

OF 1840 



WHIG MAJORITY 

E3 50-60* of tool 

M 60-75% of colal 
0| over 75% of lotal 



DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY 

ESj50-60% of total vote 
M 60-75% of total vote 
BOB over 75% of total vote 





WHIG MAJORS 
E3 50-60# of total 
^ 60-75% of total 
Hi over 75% of to 




WHIG MAJORITY 
ED 50-60*. ol total vote 
ESSS1 60-75% of total vote 
ffg over 75% of total vo 



DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY 

E3 50-60% of total vote 
B) 60-75% of total vote 
^n over 75% of total vote 



PBESIDENTIAL 

ELECTION 

OF 1844 




PRESIDENTIAL 

ELECTION 

OF 1848 



WHIG MAJORITY 
C3 50-60* of total 
B 60-75% of total vote 
■■ over 75% of total vo 



DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY 

21 50-609^ of total 
m 60-75?> of total vo 
m over 75% of total 






r 




NEGRO MAJC 
ED 50-60% of tot 
^ 60-75% of toi 
ESS 75-90% of toi 



_*ta 




NEGRO MAJORITY 
ED 50-60% of total 
M 60-75% of total 
EH 75-90% of total 



RELATIVE STRENGTH 

OF NEGRO AND WHITE 

POPULATION 

IN 1850 



WHITE MAJORITY 
ED 50-60% of total 
W% 60-75% of total 
ftEJ 75-90% of total 
^ over 90# of total 



«5? 



STATE ELECTIONS, 1851, 

IN GEORGIA, ALABAMA, 

AND MISSISSIPPI 




UNION MAJORITY 
[>■■'.':.] 50-60% of total 
^$$j$j 60-75% of total vote 
I Hi over 75% of total vot 



SOUTHERN RIGHTS MAJORITY 
fc-Vl 50-60% of total . 
\//Mi 60-75%* of total vote 
I over 75%" of total vote 



(From returns for governor in Ge 
Mississippi and for 
Congress in Alabama) 



\ 




PEESIDENTIAL 

ELECTION 

OP 1852 



INDEX. 



Abercrombie, James, advocates a 
national Union convention, 240 
n.; repudiates the nomination of 
Scott, 260; reelected to Con- 
gress, 278 n. 

Adams, J. Q., presidential candi- 
date, 10; relations with Cal- 
houn, 32; on right of petition, 
108; Memoirs, 346. 

Agrarianism, feared by planters, 
72; Democratic party and, 59- 
60, 72. 

Alabama, legislature on national 
bank, 28; legislature nominates 
White, 42; party politics in, 44, 
48-49, 50, 72, 76-78; Whigs nom- 
inate Clay, 56; bank issue in, 76- 
77; Whig policies, 77, 78; north- 
erners in, 84, 86; elections, 116, 
273, 274, 278; sentiment on Nash- 
ville convention, 159, 171; Whigs 
on Taylor's plan, 176; secession 
movement of 1850-1851, 183, 188- 
190, 193, 194, 200-202; party re- 
organization in, 190, 213, 214, 
241-242, 275; Whigs on the nom- 
ination of Scott, 261-262, 263; 
American party in, 315; Demo- 
cratic control in, 334; secession, 
340; bibliography, 350, 356, 358, 
363. 

Alabama letters, Clay's, 112. 

Alcorn, James L., Whig leader, 
82. 

Alexandria Gazette, on the insur- 
gent southern Whigs, 154; on 
the doctrine of secession, 198; 
on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 299, 
301 n. 

Allison letter, second, Taylor's 
platform, 130 and note. 



Alston, William J., Alabama Whig 
leader, 82. 

American party, successor to the 
Whig party, 308, 309, 315; the 
basis for nativist movement in 
the South, 309-313; causes for a 
revival of nativism, 3i3-3!4; 
spread of American party, 315- 
316; its "soundness" on the 
slavery question, 316, 317; in 
elections of 1855, 3^7-3^'t its 
claim to nationalism, 318-319; 
National Councils, 315, 316, 319, 
322; alignment in South, 320- 
321; sectionalism in, 321; cam- 
paign of 1856, 322-326; decline 
of, 328, 329; bibliography, 355- 

357. 365. 

American system, advocates of, in 
the South, 2-4; opposition in the 
South, 4, 7. 

Anti-slavery question, 104-109, 205. 
See also Slavery, Sectionalism. 

Archer, William S., dislike of Van 
Buren, 13 n.; opposes Jackson's 
proclamation, 20; Whig leader, 
80; on Texan annexation, 118; 
on territorial expansion, 120; ad- 
vocate of Taylor's nomination, 
127 n. ; relations with Scott, 
248, 252; letters, 345- 

Arkansas, Whigs on the compro- 
mise measures of 1850, 193; se- 
cession, 340-341. 

Ashe, John B., on Texan annexa- 
tion, 117. 

Asheville (N. C.) News, repudi- 
ates the nomination of Scott, 
263. 



25 



369 



37o 



INDEX 



Ashmun, George, at the Whig na- 
tional convention of 1852, 247, 
248. 

Atherton gag resolutions, 107. 

Augusta, northerners in, 84. 

Augusta Courier, on Jackson, 17; 
on the secession movement in 
South Carolina, 193. 

Augusta Republic, on the union 
of the South for southern rights, 
222. 



jer, George E., Whig leader, 
80; on Texan annexation, no; 
on the constitutionality of the 
Wilmot proviso, 137; opposes 
Calhoun's plans in the south- 
ern caucus, 139; on the com- 
promise measures of 1850, 165 
n. ; advocates the election of 
Scott, 269; on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 286, 288, 294 n. ; 
bibliography, 345, 346, 352. 

Baltimore, nativism in, 315. 

Baltimore American, on the north- 
ern Whigs, 227; bibliography, 
363. 

Baltimore Sun, opposes giving the 
franchise to foreigners in Kan- 
sas, 313. 

Banks, state banks, 51, 54, 66; 
southern Democrats oppose 
banks, 59, 76-77; Mississippi 
Union Bank, 74; Whigs advo- 
cate banking facilities, 77. See 
also National bank. 

Barbour, Philip P., vice-presiden- 
tial candidate, 14. 

Barrow, Alexander, Whig leader, 
82; on Texan annexation, 118. 

Bates, Edward, Whig leader, 83 
n. ; candidate for the presidential 
nomination, 335. 

Bates, John C, editor of the 
Montgomery Alabama Journal, 
86. 

Bayard, James A., on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 288. 

Bartlett, E. B., elected head of 
the American order, 319. 



Beatty, Adam, on the Missouri 
Compromise, 299 n. 

Bell, John, estrangement from 
Jackson, 41; Whig leader, 83; 
on the right of petition, 107 n. ; 
on the constitutionality of the 
Wilmot proviso, 137; introduces 
a California statehood bill, 144- 
145; on President Taylor's pol- 
icy, 166; favors the nomina- 
tion of Scott, 231; on the basis 
for political parties, 281; on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 286, 291, 
294, 304; commends the Amer- 
ican party as the successor of 
the Whig party, 321, 325; pres- 
idential candidate, 335, 338, 339 
n.; bibliography, 346, 353. 

Benjamin, Judah P., Whig leader, 
82; on the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, 288 n. ; joins the Demo- 
cratic party, 320, 325; life of, 
353. 

Benning, H. L., on the Georgia 
State Rights party, 60 n. 

Benton, Thomas H., relations with 
Jackson, 71 n. ; favors specie 
currency, 76; Thirty Years View, 

349- 

Berrien, John M., champion of 
6tate rights, 7; Whig leader, 81; 
on the tariff question, 94, 99, 
101, 102 n. ; on Texan annexa- 
tion, 118; opposes territorial ex- 
pansion, 119, 122; advocates 
Clay's nomination, 128; in the 
southern caucus, 140; opposes 
bills for California statehood, 
144, 145; on non-intercourse 
with the North, 206; supports 
Scott's presidential candidacy, 
269; denies that the Whig party 
is dead, 321. 

Bibb, George M., alienated from 
Jackson, 20. 

Black, Edward J., member of Con- 
gress from Georgia, 49. 

Black belt, 67, 69, 71, 104, 133, 
367. 

Botts, John M., Whig leader, 80; 
on the right of petition, 108 n.; 



Jl 



INDEX 



37i 



on Texan annexation, 114, 118 
n. ; on the Mexican war, 118 
n. ; opposes territorial expan- 
sion, 122; advocates Clay's nom- 
ination, 128; on the right of se- 
cession, 200; advocates Scott's 
nomination, 232 n. ; relations 
with Scott, 243, 248, 252-253; at 
the Whig national convention of 
1852, 248-249, 253; denounces 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 298; 
his name suggested for the pres- 
idential nomination, 335. 
Bragg, John, on federal relations, 

201. 
Brodnax, Robert, Alabama Whig 

leader, 81-82. 
Brooke, Francis, 35. 
Brooke, Walter, Whig leader, 82; 
candidate for the United States 
Senate, 218; on political parties, 
229, 232; repudiates the nom- 
ination of Scott, 260. 
Brooks, James, 237. 
Brown, John, raid on Harper's 

Ferry, 336. 

Brown, Milton, Whig leader, 83; 

resolution on Texan annexation, 

117; on the Mexican war, 119. 

Brown, Neil S., sentiments on the 

Union, 150. 
Brown, Thomas S., on the sec- 
tional controversy, 150; on par- 
ticipation in the Whig national 
convention of 1852, 228. 
Brownlow, W. G., " Parson ", Ten- 
nessee Whig editor, 87; repu- 
diates the nomination of Scott, 
263, 271; bibliography, 349"35<>. 
Bryan, George S., at the Whig na- 
tional convention of 1852, 256. 
Buchanan, James, presidential can- 
didate, 324, 325, 326; inaugu- 
ral address, 327; on the Lecomp- 
ton constitution, 331; bibliog- 
raphy, 345, 348. 
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 

230, 363. 
Burnley, A. T., declares Whig 
measures obsolete, 134; confi- 



dential friend of President Tay- 
lor, 138 h. 

Bugg, Robert M., vote on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 287 n. 

Butler, Andrew P., opponent of 
the compromise of 1850, 165. 

Cabell, Edward C, on Whig con- 
servatism, 123-124; opposes 
Scott's nomination, 229-230, 251; 
considers a new party align- 
ment, 232, 233 n.; supports the 
compromise resolution in the 
Whig caucus, 236; at the Whig 
national convention of 1852, 247; 
acquiesces in the nomination of 
Scott, 260, 269; bibliography, 

345, 355- 

Caldwell, Joseph P., disappoint- 
ment at the nomination of Scott, 
260. 

Calhoun, John C, champion of 
state rights, 7; relations with 
Jackson as vice-president, 7-9; 
candidate for the presidency, 9, 
129; his doctrines in the South, 
12; opposes Van Buren, 13; his 
connection with the compromise 
tariff, 24; Whig leader, 29, 30, 
3 2 > 33, 34, 35, 38; relations with 
Clay, 32-371 his policy, 32-35; 
dissatisfied with the Whig coali- 
tion, 45; repudiates it, 46, 47; 
cooperates with the Democrats, 
47, 48, 50; reelected to the U. S. 
Senate, 47; his influence in 
South Carolina politics, 47, 48, 
68; on the nomination of Harri- 
son, 58 n. ; relations with the 
northern Whigs, 66; on slavery, 
105, 106, 135; secretary of state, 
109; his supporters favor Taylor, 
129, 130; on the presidency, 131; 
connection with the southern 
caucus, 138-142; connection with 
the Mississippi convention of 
1849, x 48, 149; on Taylor's pol- 
icy, 155; connection with the 
movement to establish a " South- 
ern Press", 164 n. ; fourth of 



372 



INDEX 



March speech, 169; bibliography, 
345, 347^ 
Calhoun, J. M., abandons the 

Whig party, 49, 50. 
California, proposed territorial 
government for, 125; question 
of slavery in, 139; bills for 
statehood, 143-145; Taylor's pol- 
icy, 154-157, 165-166; question 
of admission of, 154-157, 158, 
159, 160, 162, 163, 164, 165-166, 
167, 170, 172, 173, 175-178, 179, 
180. 
Cannon, Newton, governor of Ten- 
nessee, 75-76. 
Caskie, John S., on the right of 

secession, 200. 
Cass, Lewis, presidential candidate, 
130-131; doctrine of popular sov- 
ereignty, 131, 288, 289. 
Chambers (Ala.) Tribune, declares 

the Whig party dead, 222-223. 
Chapman, John G., at the Whig 
national convention of 1852, 245, 
246. 
Chappell, A. H., on the tariff, 99 n. 
Charleston, Clay Club, 114. 
Charleston Courier, edited by Rich- 
ard Yeadon, 87-88, 363. 
Charleston Mercury, on Jackson's 
proclamation, 17, 18; on the 
Whig party in South Carolina, 
114. 
" Chivalry " politicians, 135, 209. 
Choate, Rufus, at Whig national 

convention of 1852, 248. 
Clark, James, governor of Ken- 
tucky, 75. 
Clarksville (Tenn.) Chronicle, on 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 301- 
302. 
Clay, Clement, attitude toward for- 
eigners, 312. 
Clay, Henry, his connection with 
National Republican party, 1; 
presidential candidate, 2, 10, 15; 
introduces the compromise tariff 
of 1833, 23-25; Whig leader, 29, 
30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 64, 79- 
80, 82; relations with Calhoun, 



32-37; constitutional principles, 
35-36; on Jackson's proclama- 
tion, 36; courts the support of 
the South, 37; on the election of 
1836, 43; his popularity with the 
southern Whigs, 53, 54, 55, 56; 
his new policy, 53, 54, 55; presi- 
dential aspirations, 53, 54, 55, 
56, 57; supports Harrison, 59, 61; 
formulates the Whig program, 
64-65; relations with Tyler, 65, 
80; supporters in the South, 85; 
on the national bank question, 
89-90; his success with his pro- 
gram, 93, 1 01 n. ; presidential 
candidacy, 93, 99, 102; southern 
tour, 99-101; explains the tariff 
of 1842, 100-101; on Texan an- 
nexation, 103, 109-112; on slav- 
ery, 106-107; the Raleigh letter, 
no; the Alabama letters, 112; 
his defeat, 115; Lexington 
speech, 120, 121; presidential 
candidate, 126, 127, 128, 129, 
130; on the Wilmot proviso, 138; 
offers his compromise proposi- 
tion, 164-165, 170, 176-177, 179; 
opposes Taylor's policy, 167, 
176; proposes a national Union 
party, 182; insists on endorse- 
ment of compromise measures 
of 1850, 227; endorses Fillmore 
for the Whig nomination, 231; 
bibliography, 345, 348, 353, 354. 

Clay, James B., supports Bu- 
chanan, 325. 

Clay clubs, 114. 

Clayton, John M., Whig leader, 
83 n. ; "Clayton Compromise", 
125, 135; opposes Calhoun's pro- 
gram in the southern caucus, 
139; sentiments on disunion, 150 
n.; on slavery in the territories, 
155; at the Whig national con- 
vention of 1852, 246, 252; on 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 286, 
289, 291, 293; nativistic inclina- 
tions of, 311, 313. 

Clemens, Jeremiah, denounces the 
Democratic party, 328. 



INDEX 



373 



Clinch, Duncan L., on Texan an- 
nexation, 117. 

Clingman, Thomas L., Whig leader, 
80; on the tariff, 102; on the 
right of petition, 108 n. ; on 
Texan annexation, 117; on the 
sectional controversy, 152, 163- 
164, 174 n. ; in the southern 
caucus, 173; on political parties, 
217 n., 232; abandons the Whig 
party, 260, 273; Speeches and 
Writings, 348. 

Cobb, Howell, elected speaker, 153; 
advocates acquiescence in the 
compromise measures of 1850, 
180; elected governor of Georgia, 
184; on the right of secession, 
202-204: returns to the Demo- 
cratic party, 278; correspond- 
ence, 346. 

Collier, Henry W., governor of 
Alabama, 188, 189. 

Columbia (S. C.) State Banner, 
opposes manufacturing in the 
South, 208 n. 

Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer, cited, 
72; on the tariff and nullifica- 
tion, 95, 96 n. 

Colquitt, W. F., member of Con- 
gress, 49. 

Combs, Leslie, opinion of Tyler, 
92 n. ; on Texan annexation, 115 
n. ; letters, 345. 

Compromise measures of 1850, en- 
actment of, 164-167, 170, 172, 
173, 176, 177, 178; acquiescence 
in, 179-194, 216, 217, 221, 226, 
227-228, 235. 

Congress, Whig coalition in, 29; 
special session of 1841, 65, 91, 
92, 93, 94, 98-99, 108; slavery 
issue in, 106-108; Texan annexa- 
tion question in, 11 6- 118; terri- 
torial question in, 125 ff.; pas- 
sage of compromise measures of 
1850, 172; Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
285-295, 302; nativism in, 311- 
312; strength of sections in, 318- 
319. 

Conrad, Charles M., Whig leader, 
82. 



" Conservatives ", oppose indepen- 
dent treasury, 51-52. 

Constitutional Union party, of 
Georgia, 180, 182, 184, 202-204, 
215, 240-241; national organiza- 
tion proposed, 182-184, 284. See 
Constitutional Union party of 
i860. 

Constitutional Union party of 
i860, developments leading to, 
33 I_ 336; candidates for the pres- 
idential nomination, 334-335; 
launching of, 337, 338; national 
convention, 338; campaign of 
i860, 339; opposition to dis- 
union, 339-341- 

Cooper, M. A., 49. 

Cotton, decline in value, 27; man- 
ufacturing in the South, 94-95 ; 
grown in India, 96-97. 

Crabb, George W., on Texan an- 
nexation, 112. 

Cralle, R. K, letters of, 345. 

Crawford, William H., presidential 
candidate, 10, 71 n.; Life and 
Times of, 355. 

Crittenden, J. J., suggests a com- 
promise on the tariff, 23; on the 
election of 1836, 43 n. ; part in 
the campaign of 1840, 59, 61; 
Whig leader, 82; advocates the 
nomination of Taylor, 127; 
drafts the second Allison letter, 
130 n. ; sentiments on the Union, 
1 50-151; on slavery in the ter- 
ritories, 155; on the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, 298- 
299; campaigns for Fillmore and 
Donelson, 325; aids in launching 
the Constitutional Union party, 
335. 337; an advocate of com- 
promise, 340; bibliography, 345, 
347- 

Cullom, William, views on the 
Whig nomination for the presi- 
dency, 231; in the Whig caucus, 
238; advocates the election of 
Scott, 271; on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 287 n., 291, 293-294. 



374 



INDEX 



Davis, G. M., at Whig national 

convention of 1852, 247-248. 
Davis, Henry Winter, 333, 337. 
Davis, Jefferson, candidate for gov- 
ernor of Mississippi, 188. 
Davis, Mrs. Varina J., cited, 69 n., 

89 n., 353- 
Dawson, William C, Whig leader, 
81; on the tariff, 101; on the 
compromise measures of 1850, 
165 n. ; recommends a national 
Union convention, 240; at the 
Whig national convention of 
1852, 246-247, 256; supports 
Scott's candidacy for the presi- 
dency, 264; on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 289. 
Delaware, Whigs support Harri- 
son, 43, 44; party politics in, 62; 
presidential election of 1840, 62; 
Whigs favor the nomination of 
Taylor, 231; Whigs on the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, 298 n. ; Amer- 
ican party in, 316, 328. 
Dellet, James, Whig leader, 82; on 

Texan annexation, 117. 
Democratic party, suffers losses to 
Whig coalition, 32; offers at- 
tractions to state rights men, 45, 
46; Calhoun joins, 47; new ac- 
cessions in the South, 49, 50; 
losses in the South, 51, 52; car- 
ries South Carolina and Ala- 
bama, 53; appeals to the work- 
ing classes, 59-60; alleged agra- 
rian tendencies, 72; southern 
Democrats favor relief legisla- 
tion, 74-76; oppose all banks, 76; 
position on the tariff, 98, 99; on 
the slavery question, 106, 108; 
on Texan annexation, 112, 114- 
115, 118; southern Democrats 
threaten disunion, 114-115; elec- 
tion of 1844, 115-116; on the 
Wilmot proviso, 119, 122; on the 
acquisition of territory, 121- 122; 
lack of cemservatism, 124 n., 267, 
270-271; election of 1848, 130, 
131, 132; the party of non-slave- 
holders, 133, 148 n.; connection 



with the southern caucus move- 
ment, 1 38-141, 146; with state 
resolutions on federal relations, 
142-143; congressional elections 
of 1849, 146; on the dissolution 
of the Union, 148; on popular 
sovereignty, 156, 175; on the 
Nashville convention, 168, 169, 
170, 172; on the admission of 
California, 175; Union Demo- 
crats in the South, 175, 180, 185, 
189, 190, 192, 193, 194, 203, 204, 
212; southern Democrats on the 
compromise measures of 1850, 
178 ff. ; southern rights Demo- 
crats threaten disunion, 179-180, 
184, 185-188, 189; split in Mis- 
souri, 194; southern Democrats 
on the right of secession, 194, 
199-201, 203-204; on non-inter- 
course with the North, 206; on 
manufacturing in the South, 
208 n. ; reorganization in the 
South, 212-213, 214, 215; south- 
ern Whigs incline toward, 218, 
222-223, 233; southern Whig an- 
tipathy toward, 264-265, 266-267, 
270-271, 272, 284; campaign of 
1852, 264, 265-266, 268-274; dis- 
union propensities of the south- 
ern Democrats, 270, 278; con- 
trol of national politics, 279; 
Democratic rule in Mississippi, 
279, 280-281; the situation in the 
South, 283-284; on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 285, 296, 297, 301; 
Democrats and the American 
party, 316, 317-318; anti-Know 
Nothing Whigs join, 320; elec- 
tion of Buchanan, 324, 326, 327; 
demoralization of the Democratic 
party, 327-328, 330-33I. 333; 
split at the Charleston conven- 
tion, 338; campaign of i860, 339. 

Democratic Review, cited, 45-46. 

Dent, Dennis, Whig leader, 82. 

District of Columbia, questions of 
slavery and slave trade in, 138, 
139, 164, 179. 



INDEX 



375 



Disunion, threatened, 114-115, 
124, 146, 148, 152, 166, 172, 179, 
217, 339; declared not desirable, 
140 ff. ; danger of, 162, 163, 164, 
169, 205; the disunion issue in 
1850-1851, 179-193, 342. 

Dixon, Archibald, amendment to 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 285- 
286; on the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, 293. 

Dcnelson, A. J., vice-presidential 
candidate, 322, 323, 326; de- 
nounces the Democratic party, 
327-328. 

Douglas, Stephen A., California 
statehood bill, 144; Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 285-286, 288, 296; 
breach with Buchanan, 330-331. 

Dudley, Edward B., governor of 
North Carolina, 90-91. 

Duffield, General, editor of the 
Natchez Courier, 87. 

Duncan, P. B., at Whig national 
convention of 1852, 246, 247. 

Elections, of 1832, 2; in 1838, 52- 
53; of 1840, 62; in 1842, 92-93; 
of 1844, 115-116; of 1848, 133- 
134; in 1849, 145-147; of 1852, 
273-274', in 1853, 277-281; in 
1855, S^^iS; of 1856, 326; in 
1859, 333-334; of i860, 339- 

Elford, C. F., opposes the seces- 
sion of South Carolina, 192. 

Etheridge, Emerson, vote on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 287 n., 
290. 

Everett, Edward, nominated for 
minister to England, 108; vice- 
presidential candidate, 338. 

Faulkner, Charles J., repudiates 
the nomination of Scott, 260. 

Federalist party, 1. 

Fillmore, Millard, vice-presiden- 
tial candidate, 131, 132, 133; ad- 
ministration, 172, 224; candidate 
for the presidential nomination, 
223, 242, 244, 249-255, 257; sup- 



ports Scott's candidacy for the 
presidency, 268; American and 
Whig candidate for the presi- 
dency, 322-326; bibliography, 
345. 348. 

Fleming, William B., supports 
Scott's candidacy for the presi- 
dency, 264. 

Florida, presidential election of 
1848, 133; resolutions on fed- 
eral relations, 143; on the Nash- 
ville convention, 170-171; com- 
promise measures of 1850 en- 
dorsed in, 193-194; presidential 
election of 1852, 27s; demorali- 
zation of the Whig party, 306; 
secession of, 340; bibliography, 
358, 359, 363. 

Flournoy, Thomas S., supports 
Taylor's candidacy for the pres- 
idency, 127; candidate for gov- 
ernor of Virginia, 317-318. 

Floyd, John, champion of state 
rights, 7; denounces Jackson, 
10 n., 16 n., 20; letters, 345. 

Floyd, John B., governor of Vir- 
ginia, 206. 

Foote, Henry S., organizes a 
Union movement in Mississippi, 
185; censured by the Mississippi 
legislature, 186; candidate for 
governor, 187; elected governor, 
188; on the soundness of Gen- 
eral Scott, 267, 268; candidate 
for the U. S. Senate, 280; bib- 
liography, 350. 

Force bill, reception in the South, 
22. 

Foreigners, in the South, 309-310; 
hold balance between the parties, 
310; Whig antipathy toward, 310, 
311; southern opposition to equal 
rights for, 31 1-3 12; immigration 
movement after 1848, 313-314; 
political activity of, 314; hos- 
tility toward slavery, 314. 

Fort Sumter, bombardment, 340. 

Foster, Ephraim H., on Texan an- 
nexation, 117; letters, 345. 



376 



INDEX 



Franklin, John R., on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 287 n., 291, 292. 

" Free Germans ", 314. 

Free-soilers, 151. 

Fremont, John C, Republican nom- 
inee for the presidency, 324-325. 

Fugitive slave law, 165, 179; re- 
peal opposed, 205; hostility of 
northern Whigs toward, 216, 217, 
225-226. 

Gales, Joseph, St., editor of Ra- 
leigh Register, 88 n. 

Gales, Joseph, Jr., editor of Na- 
tional Intelligencer, 88. 

Galphin claim, 168 n. 

Gayle, John, Whig leader, 82; 
signs the southern address, 140 n. 

Gentry, Meredith P., Whig leader, 
83; on the right of petition, 107; 
on President Taylor's policy, 
165-166; on Union, 205-206; on 
political parties, 217, 229, 233; 
supports the compromise resolu- 
tion in the Whig caucus, 236- 
238; opposes the nomination of 
Scott, 251; repudiates the nom- 
ination of Scott, 260, 271; Amer- 
ican candidate for governor of 
Tennessee, 318; letters, 345. 

Georgetown (Ky.) Herald, 243. 

Georgia, supports Jackson, 2; state 
rights in, 6, 7; party politics in, 
49, 50 n., 52, 56-57, 60-61; sup- 
ports White, 56; supports Har- 
rison, 60-61, 62; Whigs and the 
planting interest in, 67; Whigs 
oppose relief legislation, 75; lo- 
cal issues, 75, 78; Whig leaders, 
81; on the national bank, 91; 
manufacturing in, 94; Whigs 
nominate Clay, 99; Whigs on the 
tariff, 101; Whigs on Texan an- 
nexation, 112-113; legislature on 
territorial expansion, 121; Whigs 
on the Wilmot proviso, 123; 
presidential election of 1848, 
133; legislature on the Nashville 
convention, 158; Whigs on the 
Nashville convention, 170, 171; 



Whigs support the compromise 
proposition, 177; Union or dis- 
union issue, 179-183, 184, 193; 
formation of the Constitutional 
Union party, 180, 182; conven- 
tion of 1850, 180, 181-182; the 
Georgia platform, 181-182, 199; 
the right of secession discussed, 
194, 202-204; party reorganiza- 
tion in, 214-215, 241; Whigs on 
the nomination of Scott, 256, 
261, 262, 263-265; presidential 
election of 1852, 271-273, 274; 
election of 1853, 278; legislative 
resolutions on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 297; Whig antipathy 
toward the local Democracy, 306 
n. ; American party in, 315, 322; 
secession of, 340; bibliography, 
348, 350-351, 354, 357, 359, 363. 

Geyer, Henry S., Missouri Whig 
leader, 83 n. ; elected to the 
U. S. Senate, 194. 

Gilmer, George R., champion of 
state rights, 7; Whig leader, 60; 
reminiscences, 350-351. 

Goggin, William L., supports Tay- 
lor, 127; praises the compromise 
measures of 1850, 191 n.; can- 
didate for governor of Virginia, 
333- 

Gordon, W. F. f alienated from 
Jackson, 20, 21; abandons the 
Whig party, 48. 

Graham, William A., Whig leader, 
80; on the national bank ques- 
tion, 91; on the tariff, 99; vice- 
presidential candidate, 269, 270; 
campaigns for Fillmore and Don- 
elson, 325; letters, 346. 

Grantland, Seaton, in the Whig 
national convention of 1852, 256. 

Grayson, W. J., opposes the seces- 
sion of South Carolina, 193. 

Greeley, Horace, relations with 
Scott, 258; bibliography, 351. 

Green, Duff, on state rights, 12; 
opposes Jackson, 12, 14-15; on 
the compromise tariff of 1833, 
25; bibliography, 345, 351, 361. 



INDEX 



377 



Greenville Southern Patrioi, op- 
poses the secession of South 
Carolina, 192. 

Grundy, Felix, supporter of Jack- 
son, 41. 

Guion, John I., Whig leader in 
Mississippi, 82. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 1. 

Haralson, Hugh A., abandons the 
Whig party, 49. 

Harrison, William H., presiden- 
tial candidate, 43, 44, 57, 58, 59, 
60, 61, 62, 108, 116; campaign 
methods, 59-61; a " Jeffersonian 
Democrat ", 61 ; vote for, 62, 64; 
death, 65; letters, 345, 347. 

Hayne, Robert Y., champion of 
state rights, 7. 

Henderson, John, on Texan an- 
nexation, in, 118; repudiates 
the nomination of Scott, 263. 

Hilliard, Henry W., Whig leader, 
81-82; supports Taylor, 127; on 
the Nashville convention, 170 n. ; 
in the caucus of southern mem- 
bers of Congress, 173; urges ac- 
quiescence in the compromise 
measures of 1850, 188-189; joint 
canvass with Yancey, 189, 201; 
on the right of secession, 201; 
recommends the representation 
of Alabama in the Whig na- 
tional convention, 242; supports 
Scott's candidacy, 268; announces 
support of Buchanan's adminis- 
tration, 327; bibliography, 345, 
348, 35i, 357. 

Hillyer, Junius, 235. 

Hinton, W. R., on the U. S. bank, 
26 n. 

Holt, E. A., delegate to Whig na- 
tional convention of 1852, 267 n. 

Homestead bill, 311, 312, 313. 

Hopkins, A. F., Whig leader, Si. 

House of Representatives, right of 
petition in, 107, 108; on Texan 
annexation, 117; rejects Clayton 
compromise, 125; Taylor sup- 
porters in, 127; resolution for the 



prohibition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia, 138; Pres- 
ton's California statehood bill, 
143-144; election of members of 
thirty-first Congress, 145-147; 
speakership contests, 151, 152, 
153, 322, 337; compromise meas- 
ures of 1850, 173; Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 287, 289, 290-295. 

Hunt, Theodore G., on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 287 n., 293, 294- 
295, 303 n. 

Hunt, Washington, advocates Tay- 
lor's nomination, 129. 

Hunter, R. M. T., abandons the 
Whig party, 48. 

Huntsville Advocate, on manufac- 
turing in the South, 208; on the 
insurgent southern Whigs, 239. 



Immigration, 309, 313-314. 3*8. 

Independent Treasury, proposed by 
Van Buren, 46, 51; causes a re- 
alignment of parties, 47, 48, 49; 
unpopular in the South, 51, 52. 

Internal improvements, southern 
advocates, 3, 4; Clay on, 54; 
Whigs advocate, 77-79. 

Jackson, Andrew, reelection, 2; re- 
lations with the state rights lead- 
ers, 7-9; relations with Calhoun, 
7-9; opposition to, in South, 9; 
attitude of planters toward, 9- 
11, 71; position on the tariff, 11, 
23 ; anti-nullification proclama- 
tion and its reception, 17, 19, 21, 
22, 67; war on the national bank, 
25-27; unpopularity of his bank 
policy, 27-28, 67; the Senate 
censures him, 30; his protest, 30; 
names Van Buren as his succes- 
sor, 39, 40; relations with his 
followers in Tennessee, 40, 41 ; 
relations with Van Buren, 42; 
opposes candidacy of White, 42- 
43, 44; his strength in the South, 
68, 70-7 1; bibliography, 345, 354, 
355- 



378 



INDEX 



Jackson, Joseph W., 235. 
Jackson Flag of the Union. See 

Jackson Southron. 
Jackson Southron, on the tariff, 
96; on the Nashville convention, 
149, 169; on Taylor's policy, 156, 
177; the Whig party and the 
Union, 178; becomes the Flag of 
the Union, 187 n. ; on the right 
of secession, 196-197; opposes 
disunion, 205; on the insurgent 
southern Whigs, 239; on the 
nomination of Scott, 262, 266; 
urges Whig reorganization, 278 
n. 
Jackson True Issue, edited by Al- 
exander McClung, 87. 
Jefferson, Thomas, champion of 

state rights, 6. 
Jenifer, Daniel, repudiates the 

nomination of Scott, 263. 
Jenkins, Charles J., Whig leader, 
81; in the Georgia convention of 
1850, 182; advocates a third 
party movement, 264; vice-pres- 
idential candidate, 265; candidate 
for governor of Georgia, 278; 
independent political position, 
320; supports Buchanan, 325. 
Jessup, William, in Whig national 
convention of 1852, 246, 247, 
255. 
Johnson, Andrew, elected governor 

of Tennessee, 318. 
Johnson, Henry, Whig leader, 82; 

on Texan annexation, 118. 
Johnson, James, refuses to support 

Scott, 260. 
Johnson, Reverdy, Whig leader, 
83 n.; favors the nomination of 
Scott, 252; joins the Democratic 
party, 325; letters, 346. 
Johnston, William F., governor of 

Pennsylvania, 225, 226. 
Jones, James C, Whig leader, 83; 
favors the nomination of Scott, 
231; in the Whig national con- 
vention of 1852, 251, 252, 254 n., 
256, 258; advocates the election 
of Scott, 271; on the Kansas- 



Nebraska bill, 297 n.; advocates 
an independent southern party, 
320; joins Democratic party, 
325. 

Kansas-Nebraska bill, introduced 
in Congress, 285; approved by 
the southern Whig senators, 286 ; 
principles of, 287; squatter sov- 
ereignty feature opposed, 286- 
287, 288, 290-291; meaning de- 
clared obscure, 291-292; danger 
of causing agitation, 293-295; at- 
titude of Whigs in the South 
toward, 295-303; gives a death- 
blow to the national Whig party, 
304-305; amendment to exclude 
foreigners from the franchise, 
311-312, 313. 

Kendall, George W., editor of 
New Orleans Picayune, 86. 

Kennedy, John P., on the right 
of petition, 108 n. 

Kentucky, supports Clay, 2; legis- 
lature on the removal of the de- 
posits, 28; Whigs nominate Har- 
rison, 43; election of 1836, 44; 
party politics, 53, 62, 75; elec- 
tion of 1840, 62; Whig leaders, 
82; desire for protective tariff, 
94, 97; election of 1844, 115; 
Whigs favor Taylor, 126; elec- 
tion of 1848, 133; Whigs on the 
constitutionality of the Wilmot 
proviso, 137; Whig factions in, 
145; legislature on the Nashville 
convention, 161; Whigs on the 
Nashville convention, 171; Whigs 
in the national convention of 
1852, 250, 252, 253 n.; election 
of 1852, 273; election of 1853, 
277; Whigs on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 301; nativism in, 
310; American party in, 318, 
329; reorganization of the op- 
position in, 334; election of i860, 
339 n.; bibliography, 345, 353, 

364- 
King, T. Butler, on tariff of 1842, 
101. 



INDEX 



379 



King, William R., vice-presidential 
candidate, 260, 264. 

"Kitchen Cabinet", 13 n. 

Know Nothing party. See Ameri- 
can party. 

Knoxville Whig, 87. 

Landry, J. Aristide, considers a 
new party alignment, 233; ad- 
vocates the election of Scott, 
269. 

Langdon, C. C, New Englander, 
86; Whig leader, 86; advocates 
Clay's nomination, 128; on fed- 
eral relations, 201-202; on a 
protective tariff, 221; supports 
the candidacy of Scott, 266. 

Lecompton constitution, schism in 
the Democratic party over, 330. 

Legare, Hugh S., South Carolina 
Whig leader, 48 n., 55, 81; bib- 
liography, 346, 348, 354. 

Leigh, B. W., 55 n., 346. 

Letcher, John, elected governor of 
Virginia, 333-334- 

Letcher, R. P., Kentucky Whig 
leader, 82. 

Lewis, Dixon H., abandons the 
Whig party, 49. 

Lincoln, Abraham, supports Tay- 
lor, 127; speech on the Republi- 
can party, 333; elected president, 
338, 339; proclamation calling 
for troops, 340; Works, 348. 

Locke, J. L., editor of Savannah 
Republican, 86-87. 

Louisiana, favors protective tariff, 
3, 94. 97', banking in, 3, 76, 77; 
legislature on the removal of the 
deposits, 28; elections of 1836, 
44; Whig victory, 52; party pol- 
itics in, 53, 75, 76, 77, 78; Whigs 
nominate Clay, 56; election of 
1840, 62; Democrats oppose and 
Whigs favor banks, 76, 77; 
Whigs favor internal improve- 
ments, 78; Whig leaders, 82; 
election of 1844, 116; on Texan 
annexation, 118 n. ; election of 
1848, 133; on the Nashville con- 



vention, .162, 170, 171; acqui- 
escence in the compromise meas- 
ures of 1850, 190, 191; Whigs 
favor tariff, 221; Whigs on the 
nomination of Scott, 256, 263; 
Whigs attempt to reorganize, 
275-276; election of 1853, 277; 
legislature on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 297; Whigs on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 302; na- 
tivism in, 310, 311, 315-316; 
movement for the revival of the 
Whig party, 328; secession, 340; 
bibliography, 346, 355, 359, 364. 

Louisiana Courier, comment on 
Democratic defeat in 1848, 133, 
146. 

Louisville, headquarters of the 
"Free Germans", 314. 

Louisville Journal, edited by 
George D. Prentice, 86; on Tay- 
lor's policy, 156; on the Nash- 
ville convention, 169; on the 
nomination of Scott, 232. 

Love, James, cited on Jackson's 
bank policy, 29 n. 

Lynchburg Republican, on the 
compromise measures of 1850, 
191 n. 

Lynchburg Virginian on the Nash- 
ville convention, 160 n. 

Lyons, James, on Texan annexa- 
tion, 113; repudiates the nomi- 
nation of Scott, 263. 

McClung, Alexander, Whig leader, 
82; editor of the Jackson True 
Issue, 87 n. 

McDonald, Charles J., at Nashville 
convention, 181; candidate for 
governor of Georgia, 184. 

McDuffie, George, 31. 

Macon, Nathaniel, champion of 
state rights, 6, 7; political influ- 
ence in North Carolina, 68; re- 
lations with Jackson, 68, 71; bib- 
liography, 353, 361. 

Macon (Ala.) Republican, on Tay- 
lor's policy, 177. 



38o 



INDEX 



Macon (Ga.) Journal and Messen- 
ger, on the right of secession, 
198-199. 

Macon, Georgia, Whig meeting, 60- 

61. 
Madison, James, cited, 35, 66, 
195-196. 

Madisonian, on Harrison's elec- 
tion, 62. 

Mangum, Willie P., champion of 
state rights, 7; on the tariff, 11, 
94, 99; attitude toward Jackson, 
11, 71 n. ; on the United States 
Bank, 26 n. ; electoral vote, 45; 
Whig leader, 80; on the bank 
question, 91; attitude toward 
Tyler, 92; on the compromise 
measures of 1850, 165 n. ; advo- 
cates the nomination of Scott, 
231, 232; chairman of the Whig 
caucus, 237-238; campaigns for 
Fillmore and Donelson, 325; bib- 
liography, 34s, 346, 352. 

Manly, Charles, on sectional rela- 
tions, 150; bibliography, 352. 

Manufacturing, in the South, 94- 
95; extension of, to South advo- 
cated, 96, 206-211. 

Marshall, Humphrey, on political 
parties, 229, 233; opposes the 
nomination of Scott, 230, 251; 
on sectionalism in the Whig 
party, 235; in the Whig caucus, 
236-237 ; author of the Whig 
compromise resolution, 245; rec- 
onciled to Scott's nomination, 
260. 

Marshall, T. F., on the right of 
petition, 108; on Texan annex- 
ation, 112. 

Maryland, supports Clay, 2; com- 
mercial interests, 3-4; Whigs 
nominate Harrison, 43; election 
of 1836, 44; party politics in, 53, 
62, 152; election of 1840, 62; 
Whigs on the bank, 91; election 
of 1844, 116; election of 1848, 
133; sentiment on the sectional 
controversy, 151; on the Nash- 
ville convention, 161- 162; elec- 
tion of 1853, 277; nativism in, 



310; American party in, 315, 
318, 329; Whigs attempt to re- 
organize, 326; bibliography, 358, 
359. 363, 364. 

Mason, James M., Democratic 
leader, 50; opponent of compro- 
mise, 165; on the treatment of 
foreigners, 311. 

Memphis Eagle, on the right of 
secession, 196; insists on a com- 
promise pledge from Whig can- 
didates, 227. 

Merrick, W. D., on Texan annex- 
ation, 118; repudiates the nomi- 
nation of Scott, 263; joins the 
Democratic party, 325. 

Metcalfe, Thomas, chairman of the 
southern caucus, 139. 

Mexican war, outbreak, 118; Whigs 
on, 118-119, 121; question of 
territorial expansion, 1 19-123, 
124, 125; treaty of peace, 124- 
125. 

Milledge, John, advises Georgia 
Whigs to join the Democratic 
party, 223 n. 

Milledgeville Southern Recorder, 
on Jackson's proclamation, 19; 
Cobb on the right of secession, 
204; danger of Democratic as- 
cendency, 270, 272; advocates a 
national Union party, 284; op- 
poses giving the franchise to 
foreigners in Kansas, 313. 

Mississippi, supports Jackson, 2; 
United States Bank in, 26-27; 
presidential election of 1836, 44; 
Whig victory, 52-53; Whigs 
nominate Clay, 56; election of 
1840, 62; flush times and panic 
in» 73-74; debt repudiated, 74- 
75 ; Whigs condemn repudiation, 
74-75 ; Whigs advocate internal 
improvements, 78; northerners 
in, 84, 85, 86, 87; Prentiss in, 
85-86; election of 1844, 116; 
planters support Taylor, 133, 
148; October convention of 
1849, 148-149; legislature on the 
Nashville convention, 159-160; 



INDEX 



381 



Whigs on the Nashville conven- 
tion, 169, 171; Whigs on Tay- 
lor's policy, 177; Union or dis- 
union issue in, 180, 183, 184-187, 
*i88 n., 193, 194; convention of 
1851, 188, 195; party reorganiza- 
tion in, 188, 213, 214, 241; Whigs 
on the nomination of Scott, 256, 
2 57, 259-265, 267; Whigs plan re- 
generation, 275, 278-279; elec- 
tion of 1853, 279-281; legislature 
on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 297; 
secession, 340; bibliography, 347, 
349, 350, 351, 352, 356, 357, 359, 
361, 363- 

Mississippi valley, foreign immi- 
grants in, 309. 

Missouri, supports Jackson, 2; 
election of 1836, 44; Democrats 
oppose and Whigs favor banks, 
76, yy; Whigs favor railroad de- 
velopment, 78; Whig leaders, 83 
n. ; on the tariff, 97; Whigs on 
the compromise measures of 
1850, 194; Whigs in the national 
convention of 1852, 250, 255; on 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 288, 
295, 302; nativism in, 310; 
Whigs attempt reorganization, 
326; bibliography, 358, 359, 364. 

Missouri Compromise line, exten- 
sion advocated, 121, 124, 173, 
178; annulled, 285, 286, 290, 292, 
304; opposition to the repeal of, 
293-295, 296-299, 303, 323; the 
result of repeal, 331. 

Missouri Republican, on the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, 295 n., 302. 

Mobile, northerners in, 84. 

Mobile Advertiser, edited by C. 
C. Langdon, 86; on the insur- 
gent southern Whigs, 153, 239; 
on the Nashville convention, 
159; on disunion, 174; on the 
right of secession, 196; on the 
tariff, 221; on the nomination of 
Scott, 262, 266; on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 297; on the sec- 
tionalization of the Whig party, 
307; opposes giving the fran- 



chise to foreigners in Kansas, 
313. 

Mobile Register, 199. 

Montgomery Alabama Journal, on 
whiggery and slavery, 69; edited 
by J. C. Bates, 86; on the Nash- 
ville convention, 159 n. ; on Tay- 
lor's policy, 177; favors continu- 
ance of Whig party, 213-214; on 
the insurgent southern Whigs, 
239; on the Whig national con- 
vention of 1852, 253; danger in 
Democratic success, 271; on the 
Whig defeat, 274 n. ; on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 299. 

Monticello (Miss.) Journal, on the 
Union party of Mississippi, TS7. 

Moore, John, dissatisfied with the 
views of the northern Whigs, 
233, 236; advocates the election 
of Scott, 269. 

Morehead, Charles S., on the 
speakership contest, 153 n. 

Morehead, John M., North Caro- 
lina Whig leader, 82; on Texan 
annexation, no; advocates 
Clay's nomination, 128; bibli- 
ogaphy, 346, 352. 

Morton, Jackson, disappointment at 
the nomination of Scott, 260; 
acquiesces in the nomination of 
Scott, 269. 

Morton, Jeremiah, elected to Con- 
gress, 146. 

Murphy, W. M., on the Nashville 
convention, 171. 

Mushat, John, on the United States 
Bank, 90 n. 

Nashville, Whig mass convention 
at, 59, 61; nativism in, 315. 

Nashville convention, called, 149; 
preparations for, 157-162, 168- 
171; first session, 168, 171-172, 
178; second session, 181; bibliog- 
raphy, 347. 

Nashville Republican Banner, 87 
n. ; on the insurgent southern 
Whigs, 154; on the Nashville 



382 



INDEX 



convention, 157, 168-169; on the 
nomination of Scott, 225, 232; 
on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
297. 300, 301. 

Nashville True Whig on the 
Nashville convention, 157; on 
manufacturing in the South, 208. 

Natchez, aristocrats in, 69 n.; 
northerners in, 84. 

Natchez Courier, edited by Gen- 
eral Duffield, 87; on Taylor's 
policy, 177; on the right of se- 
cession, 197. 

Natchez Free Trader, cited, 70 n. 

National bank, southern support- 
ers of the United States Bank, 
5, 25-27; Jackson vetoes bill for 
recharter, 26; deposits removed 
from, 27; sentiment in favor of 
a recharter, 28; Clay's views on, 
54; on the Whig program, 64, 
65, 83; practical reason for, 66; 
Madison cited, 66; pro-bank feel- 
ing in the South, 85-86, 89-91; 
Tyler's vetoes, 92; Whigs declare 
the issue obsolete, 134, 219, 223 
n. ; revived popularity of national 
bank, 329-330. 

National Intelligencer, central or- 
gan of whiggery, 88, 89; circu- 
lation, 89 n. ; policy on the slav- 
ery controversy, 105 n., 164; 
Clay's Raleigh letter, no; on 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 286 
"•; 300-301; urges Whig reor- 
ganization, 328. 

National Republican party, t ; con- 
tributes to Whig party, 30, 31, 
2,2\ "National Republican" 
party formed in North Carolina, 
263. 

Native American riots, 311. 

Naturalization laws, change of, ad- 
vocated, 310 n., 311. 

New Mexico, acquisition, 125; pro 
posed territorial government for 
125; question of slavery in, 135 
164; statehood proposed, 143 
144; boundary dispute, 164, 167 
168 n. ; territorial act, 173, 178 



New Orleans, commercial posi- 
tion, 78; northerners in, 84; na- 
tivism in, 315. 

New Orleans Bee, on disunion, 
142. 

New Orleans Bulletin, 87 n.; on 
the insurgent southern Whigs, 
154; on Whig fusion with the 
Union Democrats, 184; on south- 
ern industrial independence, 
209; affirms the soundness of 
the Whig party, 209; on Whig 
principles, 270; on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 296, 298, 302; 
admits the extinction of the 
Whig party, 308; advocates 
Whig revival, 328. 

New Orleans Picayune, edited by 
George W. Kendall, 86. 

Newton, Willoughby, on Texan an- 
nexation, 117. 

New York Courier and Enquirer, 
252. 

New York Herald, Webster and 
compromise measures of 1850, 
165 n. ; on the Whig national 
convention of 1852, 253-254, 256. 

New York Times, on the Whig 
national convention of 1852, 
253 n., 254. 

New York Tribune, on the com- 
promise measures of 1850, 229. 

Niles' Register, on Jackson's proc- 
lamation, 19; on party politics, 
362; bibliography, 362. 

Non-intercourse, proposed against 
the North, 105, 206. 

North Carolina, American system 
in, 4; state rights in, 6, 7; legis- 
lature on the national bank, 28; 
election of 1836, 44; party pol- 
itics in, 49, 50 n., 52, 62, 68; 
Whigs nominate Clay, 56; elec- 
tion of 1840, 62; distribution of 
Whig strength, 68, 104; Whig 
leaders, 80-81; Whig press in, 
87 n.; Whigs on the national 
bank, 91 ; Whigs nominate Clay, 
93. 99; Whigs on Texan annex- 



INDEX 



383 



ation, no, 115 n. ; election of 
1844, 115, 116; election of 1848, 
133; Whigs on the constitution- 
ality of the Wilmot proviso, 137 
n. ; resolutions on federal rela- 
tions, 142, 143; on the Nashville 
convention, 169 n., 170, 171; ac- 
quiescence in the compromise 
measures of 1850, 191-192; on 
the right of secession, 192, 200; 
anti-tariff resolutions of the leg- 
islature, 221; Whigs on the nom- 
ination of Scott, 256, 261-262, 
263; elections of 1852, 273; elec- 
tion of 1853, 277; Whig state 
convention on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 297-298; reorganiza- 
tion of the opposition in, 334; 
secession of, 340-341 ; bibliogra- 
phy, 348, 351, 352, 354, 355. 356, 
358, 359, 361, 363. 365. 

Northerners, in the South, 84-87. 

Northern Whigs, anti-slavery in- 
clinations, 106, 108, 119; oppose 
the acquisition of territory, 120, 
122; on the Wilmot proviso, 
122; oppose the Clayton compro- 
mise, 125-126; oppose the com- 
promise measures of 1850, 183; 
relations with the southern 
Whigs, 282-284; " silver grey " 
or "cotton" Whigs, 283, 305; 
on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
303-305. 

North State Whig on the insurgent 
southern Whigs, 154; on the Ra- 
leigh Star, 169 n.; on the dis- 
union agitators, 174 n. ; on the 
right of secession, 198; declares 
Democrats favor secession, 200. 

Nullification, 16, 45, 95. 

Nullifiers, attitude toward Jackson, 
8; alienated by Jackson's proc- 
lamation, 17-18; take the name 
"Whigs", 17, 18; connection 
with the compromise tariff, 25; 
in the Whig party, 31, 32, 95; 
attractions offered by the Demo- 
crats, 45. 



Oliver, Mordecai, on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 288 n. 

" Order of the Star Spangled Ban- 
ner ", or " Order of the Sons of 
the Sires of '76 ", 308. See 
American party. 

" Omnibus Bill ", 164-165, 172, 
178. See also Compromise meas- 
ures of 1850. 

Oregon, proposed territorial gov- 
ernment for, 125; organized as 
a territory, 126, 135. 

Outlaw, David, on Whig issues, 
219 n. ; considers a new party 
alignment, 233; supports com- 
promise resolution in the Whig 
caucus, 236, 238; disappointment 
at the nomination of Scott, 260; 
on party ties, 261. 

Parker, R. H., cited on Whig tac- 
tics, 61 n. 

Patton gag resolution, 107. 

Pearce, James A., supports Scott 
for the presidency, 269; on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 288 n.; 
joins the Democratic party, 325. 

Pendleton, John, defeated for re- 
election to Congress, 146. 

Pennington, William, elected 
speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, 337. 

Peyton, Joseph H., on Texan an- 
nexation, 117. 

Perry, Benjamin F., opposes se- 
cession of South Carolina, 192. 

Petersburg Intelligencer, on a sec- 
tional organization of the south- 
ern Whigs, 306. 

Petigru, James L., Whig leader, 
48 n., 81; opposes secession of 
South Carolina, 193; on slavery, 
340 n.; bibliography, 353, 354. 

Petition, question of right of, 107- 
108. 

Philadelphia Bulletin, on the death 
of Taylor, 168 n. 

Pierce, Franklin, presidential can- 
didate, 260, 264, 265-266, 272, 



384 



INDEX 



274; election, 274; inaugural ad- 
dress, 280, 331. 

Planters, attitude toward Jackson, 
9-1 1, 67, 68, 71; attitude toward 
the United States Bank, 26; 
state rights beliefs, 67-68; in the 
Whig party, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 
276 n., 341; aristocratic conserva- 
tism, 69-73, 148, 341-343; dis- 
position toward politics, 73; con- 
vention of cotton planters, 97; 
sugar planters on the tariff, 97; 
support the Whig party and Tay- 
lor, 133; on the southern move- 
ment, 148 n. 

Pleasants, James H., editor of the 
Richmond Whig, 21, 87-88; con- 
demns Jackson's proclamation, 
21. 

Poindexter, George, on the United 
States Bank, 26 n. ; Whig leader, 
38 n., 82. 

Poinsett, Joel R., Democratic 
leader, 47; " Life and Services ", 
355- 

Polk, James K., supporter of Jack- 
son, 41; presidential candidate, 
112, 115; on expansion, 119, 
125 n. ; signs Oregon bill, 126; 
Diary, 349. 

Polk, William, letters of, 346. 

Porter, Alexander, on President 
Jackson, 29 n. ; Louisiana Whig 
leader, 82; letters of, 345, 346. 

Porter, B. F., Alabama Whig 
leader, 81-82; on the Whig 
party, 136. 

Pratt, Thomas G., on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 288 n. ; joins the 
Democratic party, 325. 

Preemption, bill for, 310. 

Prentice, George D., editor of 
Louisville Journal, 86. 

Prentiss, Sargent S., Mississippi 
Whig leader, 52-53, 82, 87; a 
New Englander, 85 ; influence in 
Mississippi politics, 85-86, 87; 
on repudiation of the state debt, 
75 n.; bibliography, 349, 354. 



Preston, William, of Kentucky, 
joins the Democratic party, 325. 

Preston, William B., Virginia Whig 
leader, 80; supports Taylor, 127; 
bill for California statehood, 
143-144, 156; secretary of navy, 
167. 

Preston, William C, South Caro- 
lina Whig leader, 48 n., 50 n., 
58-59, 68, 81; supports Clay, 54- 
55; in the Senate, 91; on the 
abolitionists, 105; on slavery, 
107; on Texan annexation, 109, 
111; on the election of 1844, 
115; on territorial acquisition, 
120 n. ; opposes the secession of 
South Carolina, 192-193; letters 
of, 345- 

Puryear, Richard C, vote on the 
Kansas Nebraska bill, 287 n. 

Quitman, John A., champion of 
state rights, 12; abandons the 
Whig party, 48; Democratic 
leader, 50; advocates secession, 
185; withdraws from guberna- 
torial campaign, 189; cited on 
General Scott, 267-268; vice- 
presidential candidacy, 274; bib- 
liography, 347, 356. 

Raleigh Register, 88; on the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, 296-297. 

Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 
champion of state rights, 6, 7; 
denounces Jackson's proclama- 
tion, 20; on compromise on the 
tariff, 23-24; Life of, 353. 

Raymond, Henry J., at the Whig 
national convention of 1852, 253 
n., 254-255. 

Rayner, Kenneth, North Carolina 
Whig leader, 81; on the tariff, 
94; on Texan annexation, 117; 
on the constitutionality of the 
Wilmot proviso, 137 n. ; repudi- 
ates the nomination of Scott, 
263; a leader in the American 
party, 316. 



INDEX 



385 



Ready, Charles, on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 288 n. 

Reese, David A., elected to Con- 
gress from. Georgia, 278 n.; 
vote on the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, 287 n. 

Republicans, relations with the pro- 
posed national Union party, 332- 
333» 335-336; victory in i860, 
339. 

Repudiation of state debts, by 
Mississippi, 73-75. 

Rhett, R. Barnwell, at the Nash- 
ville convention, 172. 

Richmond, Clay club, 114. 

Richmond Republican, on manu- 
facturing in the South, 208. 

Richmond Whig, edited by J. H. 
Pleasants, 21; on Jackson's bank 
policy, 28; on the Whig coali- 
tion, 31; on the tendency toward 
state rights views, 34 n.; on 
whiggery and slavery, 69; views 
on the tariff, 94-95; proposes 
non-intercourse with the North, 
104-105; opposes acquisition of 
territory, 122; on Taylor's pol- 
icy, 177; on the secession issue, 
194 n., 200; for Whig reorgan- 
ization, 213; on the slavery ques- 
tion and the tariff, 220-221; on 
the nomination of Scott, 232; on 
Scott's letter of acceptance, 261; 
on the Kansas-Nebraska bill 
296 n. ; on Whigs in the Ameri 
can party, 320-321; on coopera 
tion between Whigs and Repub 
licans, 332. 

Right of secession, affirmed, 181, 
192; the southern Whigs on, 188, 
194-204, 341. 

Ritchie, Thomas, editor of the 
Richmond Enquirer, 21; defends 
Jackson, 21; letters of, 361. 

Rives, William C, opposes the in- 
dependent treasury, 52; Whig 
leader, 80; on Texan annexa- 
tion, 118; on territorial expan- 
sion, 120 n. ; advocates diversi- 

2f. 



fication of. industry in the South, 
211; bibliography, 345, 346. 
Rogers, Sion H., vote on the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, 287 n. 

St. Louis, nativism in, 315. 

St. Louis Intelligencer, on the 
right of secession, 198; on the 
nomination of Scott, 225, 227- 
228. 

St. Louis Union, 76. 

Sargent, Nathan, Whig leader, 83 
n. ; directs the organization of 
the Constitutional Union party, 
331-332; Public Men and Events, 
352. 

Savannah, northerners in, 84. 

Savannah Georgian, on free trade, 

95- 

Savannah Republican, edited by J. 
L. Locke, 87; the South on a 
protective tariff, 94; on Clay's 
Raleigh letter, 1 1 1 ; on the south- 
ern movement, 158; suggests a 
Union platform, 181; on diver- 
sification of industry in the 
South, 209; on the nomination 
of Scott, 225-226; on the Whig 
party in Georgia, 264 n.; on the 
candidacy of Scott, 272 n.; on 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 296; 
antipathy toward Democrats, 281 
n., 306. 

Sawyer, Samuel T., member of 
Congress, 49. 

Scott, R. E., condemns the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, 301 n. 

Scott, Winfield, candidate for the 
Whig nomination for the presi- 
dency, 223, 224, 244, 249-255, 
258; nomination proposed by 
northern Whigs, 224, 225, 226, 
228-229; southern Whigs oppose 
his nomination, 225, 230-231, 
232, 251; declines to publish his 
views on the compromise meas- 
ures of 1850, 229, 242-244; 
southern advocates of his nom- 
ination, 231, 232, 243, 250; let- 
ter of acceptance, 257-259, 262; 



386 



INDEX 



defeated for the presidency, 259- 
274; bibliography, 345, 352. 

Seaton, William W., editor of the 
National Intelligencer, 88. 

Secession, of southern states, 340, 
341. See also Right of seces- 
sion and disunion. 

Sectionalism, 106, 119, 121, 135, 
138-141, 144, 151-152, 285, 287- 

288, 304-307. 3io, 3"-3i3» 3*7> 
318-319, 321-322, 323, 336, 342- 
343- 

Senate, compromise tariff in, 
24-25; Jackson's protest, 30; 
slavery question in, 106, 108; 
Texan annexation in, 111, 118; 
Clayton compromise in, 125; 
California statehood bills in, 144- 
145; compromise measures of 
1850 in, 164-165, 176-177; Scott's 
supporters in, 231-232; Kansas- 
Nebraska bill in, 285-287, 288- 

289, 291, 293-294; nativism dis- 
played in, 3 1 1-3 12. 

Senter, William T., on Texan an- 
nexation, 117. 

Seward, William H., relations with 
Taylor, 147, 152; his hold on 
the Whig party, 183; on the re- 
peal of the fugitive slave law ; 
216-217; relations with Scott 
224, 225, 258, 259, 261, 264, 273 
n., 275; leader of the anti-slav 
ery Whigs, 305; bibliography 
352. 

Sharkey, William L., Mississippi 
Whig leader, 82; defends the 
Nashville convention project, 
171; cited, 186. 

Shattuck, D. O., New Englander, 
86; active in Mississippi poli- 
tics, 86. 

Shepard, Charles, member of Con- 
gress, 49. 

" Silver Grey " or " Cotton ** 
Whigs, 283. 

Slave-holders. See Planters. 

Slavery, in the South, 69-72, 104; 
in politics, 104-109; and expan- 
sion, 109, 113, 118, 119, 120, 



121, 122; status in the new ter- 
ritory, 125; in Oregon, prohib- 
ited, 126, 135; in California, 143, 
144, 145. i55, i57. 163; in a 
southern confederacy, 205; in 
Kansas, 287-291; attitude of 
the American party toward slav- 
ery in the territories, 319, 321- 
322, 323. 

Smith, Truman, supports Taylor, 
127; on the second Allison let- 
ter, 130 n. 

Soule, Pierre, 330 n. 

South, American system in, 204; 
state rights in, 6-9, 12, 67; dis- 
content in, 10, 11, 12; on the 
tariff, 12, 23, 94-103; on the 
national bank, 26, 89-91; op- 
poses Van Buren, 12-14; sec- 
tionalism in, 38, 68, 69-70, 71, 72, 
105 n. ; elections in, 44, 52-53, 
62, 92-93. 115-116, 133-134, 145- 
147. 273-274, 277-281, 317-318, 
326, 333-334. 339; social lines in, 
69-72; northerners in, 84-87; 
journalism in, 86-88; on Texan 
annexation, 1 09-1 18; development 
of manufacturing advocated in, 
206-211; foreigners in, 309-310 
nativism in, 310-312, 314, 315 
316, 328, 329; secession, 340 
341. See also Southern Whigs 

South Carolina, state rights in, 6 
7, 8, 67, 68; hatred of Van Bu 
ren, 13; nullification, 16; nullifi 
ers denounce Jackson, 17, 18; on 
Whig party, 31; election of 1844 
42-43, 44-45; party politics in 
47-48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 56, 68 
104, 133, 241, 256; Whig leaders 
81; Whigs on the national bank 
91; manufacturing in, 94; dis 
union movement in, 179, 192 
193; secession, 340; bibliogra 
phy, 348, 354. 356, 357, 359. 363 
365. 

Southern caucus of 1848-1849, pro 
ceedings, 138-141, 142; southern 
address of 1849, 140, 141. 



INDEX 



387 



Southern commercial conventions, 
210. 

Southern confederacy, proposed, 
185; organized for the seceded 
states, 340. 

Southern movement, proposed, 114, 
135-136; southern caucus of 1848- 
1849, 138-141, 142; Mississippi 
convention of 1849, 148-149; 
Nashville convention, 149, 157- 
162, 168-171, 172, 181; southern 
caucusing in 1850, 173; the se- 
cession issue in 1850-185 1, 179- 
193; southern rights candidates 
in 1852, 274. 

Southern Press, established, 164 n. 

Southern Whigs, the anti-Jackson 
elements, 12-22, 26-30, 41; 43-44, 
60-61, 67-68; their principles, 30- 
3 2 , 53-545 support White, 42-44; 
desertions to Democratic party, 
47-50, 92-93, 112, 116, 222, 223, 
260; turn to Clay, 53, 54, 55, 56, 
57; disappointed at Harrison's 
nomination, 57, 58; support Har- 
rison, 57, 62; social and eco- 
nomic status, 58, 60, 67-71; 
oppose relief legislation, 74-76; 
advocate banking facilities, 77; 
advocate internal improvements 
and manufactures, 77-79, 206- 
211; leaders, 79-83; southern 
Whig press. 86-88, 89 ; on the na- 
tional bank, 89-91; condemn 
Tyler, 92, 93; on the tariff, 93- 
99, 100, 101-103; nominate 
Clay, 99; on the slavery ques- 
tion, 104-109; on Texan annex- 
ation, 109-118; on the Union, 114- 
115, 136, -150-151, 162, 174, 178, 
205-206, 339-34i; on the Mexican 
War, 118-119, 121; on expan- 
sion, 1 19-123; on the Wilmot 
proviso, 124, 137; on the Clayton 
compromise, 125; on the Oregon 
bill, 126; southern insurgent 
movement for Taylor, 126-130; 
Clay Whigs, 128, 130, 145; cam- 
paign tactics, 132-133; election 
of Taylor, 133-134; in the south- 



ern caucus, 138-142; confidence 
in Taylor, 141-142, 143; support 
Preston's California statehood 
bill, 143-144; congressional elec- 
tions of 1849, 145-147; on the 
Mississippi convention, 148-149; 
the insurgent southern Whigs, 

I5I-I54, l62-l64, l66-l67, l68r 

170 n., 238-240, 259-260; on the 
Nashville convention, 157, 162, 
168-171; on Taylor's policy, 165- 
168, 170, 175-178; on the com- 
promise measures of 1850, 165- 
166, 170, 178-179; in the Union 
movement of 1850-1851, 179-194; 
on the right of secession, 194- 
204; on economic diversification 
in the South, 206-211; reluctance 
about Whig reorganization, 213, 
214, 215, 216-223; insist on en- 
dorsement of the compromise 
measures of 1850, 216, 217, 221, 
226, 227-228, 229, 234-240, 243, 
244, 245; on the Whig presiden- 
tial candidates, 224-232; reorgan- 
ization in the lower South, 241, 
261; in the national convention 
of 1852, 245-257; on the nomi- 
nation of Scott, 256, 259-265; 
campaign of 1852, 259-275, 308; 
antipathy toward the Democratic 
party, 265, 266-267, 270-271, 272, 
284, 306 n., 328, 332; attempts at 
reorganization, 275-276, 277-281; 
demoralization, 281, 283-284, 305- 
306; attitude toward the admin- 
istration of Pierce, 284-285; on 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 285- 
305 ; a sectional organization for 
southern Whigs proposed, 306- 
307; basis for attraction into the 
American party, 309-313, 3M» 
315, 316, 317, 318-319, 320 
many join Democratic party 
320-321, 325; attempt to reor 
ganize, 326; attitude toward Bu- 
chanan's administration, 327; at- 
tempt to revive, 328-330, 333 
opposition to the Lecompton con- 
stitution, 331; cooperate in the 



388 



INDEX 



Constitutional Union party, 331- 
34i- 

Sparrow, General Edward, on the 
Union, 205. 

Squatter sovereignty, in the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, 287, 288, 290- 
291, 299-300; in practice in Kan- 
sas, 303, 331; condemned, 322, 
324. 

Stanly, Edward, North Carolina 
Whig leader, 81; on Texan an- 
nexation, no; on Taylor's pol- 
icy, 165; advocates the nomina- 
tion of Scott, 231; bibliography, 
346, 352. 

State rights, strength in South, 6- 
9; effect of Jackson's proclama- 
tion, 19-20; spread of, 33-34; 
popularity with planters, 67, 68, 
281, 341-342; doctrines discussed, 
194-204. See also Right of se- 
cession. 

State Rights party in Virginia, 19; 
in Georgia, 19, 56-57, 60; in 
North Carolina, 80. 

Stephens, Alexander H., Whig 
leader, 81; on the tariff, 102; on 
Texan annexation, no n., 117; 
on the Mexican war and expan- 
sion, 119; on the Clayton com- 
promise, 125; a supporter of 
Taylor, 127, 128, 130 n.; opposes 
Calhoun's program in the south- 
ern caucus, 139, 140; an insur- 
gent, 152; on the admission of 
California, 155, 157, 158 n.; on 
the compromise proposition, 166; 
relations with Taylor, 166, 167, 
168 n.; on the Texas boundary 
question, 167, 168 n. ; advocates 
acquiescence in the compromise 
measures, 180-181, 182; in the 
Georgia convention of 1850, 182; 
reelected to Congress, 184; on 
the right of secession, 203; rec- 
ommends a national Union con- 
vention, 215; relations with 
Webster, 224; favors a new na- 
tional party, 229, 232, 234, 274; 
repudiates the nomination of 



Scott, 230, 259-260, 263-264; sup- 
ports Webster for the presi- 
dency, 272; reelected to Congress, 
278; advocates a national Union 
party, 284, 307; vote on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 287 n. ; 
cited, 302; joins the Democratic 
party, 320; bibliography, 345, 
346, 347, 348, 353- 

Stevenson, T. B., editor of the Cin- 
cinnati Atlas, 120 n. 

Strother, James F., considers a 
new party alignment, 233; advo- 
cates the election of Scott, 268- 
269. 

Stuart, Alexander H. H„, Virginia 
Whig leader, 80; on the right of 
petition, 108; advocates diversi- 
fication of the industry of the 
South, 211; directs the organ- 
ization of the opposition in Vir- 
ginia, 334; letters, 331 n., 334 
n-. 335, 346. 

Summers, George W., Virginia 
Whig leader, 80. 

Syme, John, editor of the Peters- 
burg Intelligencer, 69 n. 

Taliaferro, John, Virginia Whig 
leader, 80. 

Tariff, in the South, 2, 3, 4; the 
North demands protection, 7 ; the 
" tariff of abominations ", 8 ; 
tariff of 1832, 12; the compro- 
mise tariff of 1833, 23, 24, 25; 
Clay on the tariff, 54; proposi- 
tion for a new tariff, 65, 66, 83; 
protection advocated by Prentiss, 
86; supported by Yeadon, 88; 
the Whig tariff of 1842, 93-103; 
Clay explains the tariff of 1842, 
100-101; southern Whigs on, 101- 
102, 206, 219-221; revived popu- 
larity of tariff, 329-330. 

Taylor, Nathaniel G., vote on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 287 n., 
290. 

Taylor, Zachary, on expansion, 
121; presidential candidacy, 126- 
133; his views on the Wilmot 



INDEX 



389 



proviso, 138; southern caucus, 
an attempt to embarrass his ad- 
ministration, 139; confidence of 
southern Whigs in, 140; criti- 
cized, 146; relations with Sew- 
ard, 147, 152; policy on slavery 
in the territories, 147-148, 151- 
152, 154-157, 162, 163, 164, 165- 
166, 167, 168 n., 170, 175-178; 
on the preservation of the Union, 
166; death, 167, 168 n., 172, 178; 
letters, 345, 347- 

Tazewell, Littleton W., champion 
of state rights, 7; alienated from 
Jackson, 20; abandons the Whig 
party, 48; letters, 346. 

Tennessee, supports Jackson, 2 ; pol- 
itics in, 40, 41, 75, 115; legisla- 
ture nominates White, 42; Whig 
party in, 43-44; presidential 
election of 1836, 44; Whig lead- 
ers, 82-83; election of 1848, 133; 
Whig factions in, 145; on the 
Nashville convention, 161; 
Whigs on the Nashville conven- 
tion, 168-169; Democrats on the 
Nashville convention, 170; 
Whig gains, 191; the legislature 
on the right of secession, 195; 
Whigs in the national conven- 
tion of 1852, 250, 252, 253 n., 
255; Whigs on the nomination 
of Scott, 263; election of 1852, 
2 7*> 273; Whigs plan reorganiza- 
tion, 275; election of 1853, 277; 
congressional delegation on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 293; leg- 
islature on the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, 297; Whigs on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 300-302; nativism 
in, 315; election of 1855, 318; 
American party in, 318, 329; 
reorganization of the opposition 
in, 334; election of i860, 339 n.; 
secession, 340-341 ; bibliography, 
349. 350, 353, 359, 364, 365. 

Texas, annexation issue, 103, 109- 
116; "Texas or Disunion", 114- 
115; annexation by joint resolu- 
tion, 116-118; New Mexico 



boundary question, 164, 167, 168 
n., 173, 179; secession, 340. 
Thompson, John B., nativistic in- 
clinations, 312. 
Thompson, Waddy, breaks with 
Calhoun, 47; South Carolina 
Whig leader, 48 n., 68, 81; on 
Texan annexation, 113; on ex- 
pansion, 122; opposes the seces- 
sion of South Carolina, 192; 
repudiates the nomination of 
Scott, 263; bibliography, 354. 
Tompkins, Patrick W., signs the 
southern address of 1849, 140 n. 
Toombs, Robert, opposes relief leg- 
islation, 75; Whig leader, 81; 
on the tariff, 94, 101; on Texan 
annexation, 117 n. ; supports 
Taylor, 127, 128, 130; opposes 
Calhoun's program in the south- 
ern caucus, 139, 140-141; leader 
of the insurgent southern Whigs, 
I 5 2 " I 53, 154; on the admission 
of California, 158 n.; on the 
compromise proposition, 165, 
166; relations with Taylor, 166, 
167, 168 n.; in the caucus of 
southern representatives, 173; 
advocates acquiescence in the 
compromise measures, 180-181, 
182; in the Georgia convention 
of 1850, 182; reelected to Con- 
gress, 184; elected to the U. S. 
Senate, 217-218; relations with 
Webster, 224; considers a new 
party alignment, 229, 230 n., 
232; repudiates the nomination 
of Scott, 230-231, 259-260, 263- 
264; his connection with Georgia 
politics, 278; on the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, 288-289, 294; joins 
the Democratic party, 320; bib- 
liography, 345, 346, 354. 
Towns, George W., favors resist- 
ance against the compromise 
measures, 179, 180. 
Troup, George M., presidential can- 
didacy, 57, 60, 274; bibliography, 
356. 



390 



INDEX 



Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor, 
cited, 73 n.; on the right of se- 
cession, 196; on the southern 
commercial convention of 1859, 
210. 

Tuscumbia North Alabamian, cited, 
93- 

Tyler, John, champion of state 
rights, 7; U. S. senator, 20; 
condemns Jackson's proclama- 
tion, 20, 21; connection with the 
compromise tariff, 24, 25 n. ; 
Whig leader, 29; vice-presiden- 
tial candidate, 43, 57; supports 
Clay, 54-55; vice-president elect, 
63; becomes president, 65; ad- 
ministration, 80, 91-92, 93; read 
out of the Whig party, 92, 93; 
and the tariff, 99; Texan annex- 
ation treaty, 109, 113; unpopu- 
larity with Whigs, 1 1 3-1 14; bib- 
liography, 346, 349, 352, 356. 

Underwood, Joseph R., Whig 
leader, 82; on the right of peti- 
tion, 107 n., 108 n. ; on the con- 
stitutionality of the Wilmot pro- 
viso, 137; opposes Calhoun's pro- 
gram in the southern caucus, 
139- 

Union party, of Alabama, 189-190, 
213-214, 241; of Mississippi, 189- 
190, 213-214, 241; national 
Union party recommended, 214, 
215, 284, 307. See also Consti- 
tutional Union party. 

United States Bank. See National 
bank. 

United States Telegraph, opposes 
Jackson's reelection, 15; on the 
compromise tariff, 25. 

Upshur, Abel P., alienated from 
Jackson, 20. 

Utah, territorial bill, 172, 173, 178. 

Van Buren, Martin, relations with 
Jackson, 10, 12, 13, 28, 39; vice- 
presidential candidate, 12, 13, 
14; unpopularity in the South, 



I3> *4> 39> 40; nominated for 
minister to England, 13; presi- 
dential candidate, 39, 44, 68; 
inaugural address, 45; independ- 
ent treasury plan, 46, 51; can- 
didate for reelection, 53, 55, 57, 
60, 61, 62; on Texan annexa- 
tion, no; presidential candidate, 
136; letters, 346. 

Vicksburg, northerners in, 84. 

Vicksburg Sentinel, 75 n. 

Vicksburg Whig, on Taylor's pol- 
icy, 177; on the southern com- 
mercial convention of 1859, 210 
n. 

Virginia, American system in, 4; 
state rights in, 6, 7, 19-21; con- 
demns Jackson's proclamation, 
19-21; on the removal of the 
deposits, 28-29; politics revolu- 
tionized, 28-29; Whig party in, 
37-38; nationalists nominate 
Harrison, 43; desertions from 
the Whig party, 48; party poli- 
tics, 52, 61; Whigs nominate 
Clay, 56; election of 1840, 62; 
whiggery and the planting in- 
terest, 67; on banks, 77; Whig 
leaders, 80; manufacturing in, 
94; on the tariff, 97, 102; slav- 
ery question in, 105; presiden- 
tial vote, 116; Richmond Whig, 
87-88; Whigs on the national 
bank, 90, 91; election of 1848. 
133 n. ; resolutions on federal 
relations, 135, 142; Whig fac- 
tions in, 145; on the Nashville 
convention, 160, 171; acquies- 
cence in the compromise meas- 
ures of 1850, 190-192; on the 
right of secession, 200; Whigs 
in the national convention of 
1852, 250, 252, 253 n., 255; elec- 
tion of 1853, 277; Whigs on the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 301 n. ; 
nativism in, 311, 315, 317-318; 
attempt at Whig reorganization 
in, 326; Whig antipathy toward 
the Democratic party, 332; re- 
organization of the opposition, 



INDEX 



39i 



333-334; election of i860, 339 n.; 
secession, 340-341 ; bibliography, 
350, 351, 356, 358, 350, 360, 361, 
363, 364- 
Virginia and Kentucky resolu- 
tions, cited, 195. 

Wade, Benjamin F., on effect of 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill on the 
Whig party, 304 n. 

Walsh, Thomas Y., supports com- 
promise resolution in the Whig 
caucus, 236. 

Ward, William T., advocates the 
nomination of Scott, 231-232. 

Washington, nativism in, 315. 

Washington Republic, Taylor's or- 
gan, 134, 166 n. 

Washington Union, on the split in 
the Whig party, 240. 

Webster, Daniel, Whig leader, 29; 
followers in the South, 85; sev- 
enth of March speech, 165; sec- 
retary of state, 112 n.; reply to 
Hayne cited, 195; on the right 
of secession, 196; candidate for 
the Whig nomination for the 
presidency, 223, 224, 244, 249- 
2 Si. 254-255, 257; nominated by 
the Georgia Whigs, 265, 271-273; 
bibliography, 345, 349, 351, 353. 

Weed, Thurlow, relations with the 
southern Whigs, 84 n.; bibliog- 
raphy, 352. 

Wethered, John, on the right of 
petition, 108 n. 

" Whig doctrines of '98 ", 9, 12. 

Whig party, connection with Na- 
tional Republican party, 1, 30; 
the common cause against Jack- 
son, 5, 12, 15-16, 29-32; origin 
of the name, 18, 30; election of 
1836, 42-44; losses in the South, 
47-5 1 ; sub-treasury Whigs, 48 
ri.; recognizes Clay's leadership, 
53-57; election of 1840, 57-62; 
formulating a party program, 
64-66; characteristics of south- 
ern wing, 67-79; enacting Whig 
measures, 89-103; festival of 



Whig editors, 89; caucus reads 
Tyler out of the party, 92; 
unity accomplished, 103; division 
on slavery, 104-109; on Texan 
annexation, 109-118; on the 
Mexican war, 11 8- 11 9, 121; on 
expansion, 1 19-122; sectional 
line in, 123, 128, 132, 134; con- 
servatism of, 124, 136, 266, 270, 
274, 281, 341-343; election of 
1848, 128-134; speakership con- 
test of 1849, 152-154; the Union 
movement in the lower South, 
179-206; disorganized condition, 
212, 213, 261, 277, 283-286; re- 
organization in the South, 212, 
213-215, 241-242, 262; sectional- 
ism in, 216-218,219, 222, 223, 224, 
225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230; 
Whig issues obsolete, 219-222, 
223 n., 235-236, 308; election of 
1852, 223-232, 236-240, 245-275; 
emphasis on Whig principles, 
266-267, 269-271, 274-275; at- 
tempts at further reorganization 
in the South, 275-276, 277-279; 
relations between northern and 
southern Whigs, 282-284, 303- 
307; the Kansas-Nebraska bill 
the death-blow, 303-305, 307; at- 
tempt to revive the party, 326, 
328-330; popularity of old Whig 
measures, 329; identified with 
the Constitutional Union party, 
337; summary on the party in 
the South, 341-343. See also 
Southern Whigs. 

White, Addison, supporter of 
Scott, 243. 

White, Alexander, repudiates the 
nomination of Scott, 260. 

White, Edward D., governor of 
Louisiana, 75. 

White, Hugh L., presidential can- 
didate, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 
56, 105; relations with Jackson, 
41, 42; constitutional and polit- 
ical views, 41-42; his bank plan, 
51; supports Clay, 55; bibliog- 
raphy, 345, 349. 



392 



INDEX 



White, John, on the right of peti- 
tion, 1 08 n. 

Wilde, Richard H., Georgia Whig 
leader, 81. 

Williams, C. H., Tennessee Whig 
leader, 82; opposes the nomina- 
tion of Scott, 230; considers a 
new party alignment, 233; re- 
pudiates the nomination of 
Scott, 260, 271. 

Wilmington Journal, cited, 70 n. ; 
ates the nomination of Scott, 
263. 

Wilmington Journal, cited, 70 n.; 
on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 296 
n. 

Wilmot proviso, sectional line on, 
119, 123, 144, 145; southern 
Whigs oppose, 119, 123, 124, 142, 
i43» iS3» 174; advocated in the 
North, 122; Georgia Whigs on, 
123; southern Whigs on the con- 
stitutionality of, 137-138; Tay- 
lor on, 138; evaded, 176. 

Wilson, Henry, in the American 
party, 319. 



Winthrop, Robert C., candidate for 
the speakership, 153. 

Wise, Henry A., opposes Van Bu- 
ren for vice-president, 14; on 
the presidency, 55; supports Har- 
rison, 61; cited, 64; on slavery, 
105; on "gag" rule, 107 n.; 
bibliography, 352, 355. 

Yancey, William L., leader of the 
southern movement, 159; an ad- 
vocate of secession, 189; joint 
canvass with Hilliard, 201; bib- 
liography, 353, 356, 357. 

Yeadon, Richard, Whig leader, 81, 
88, 103; on the tariff, 103; op- 
poses the secession of South Car- 
olina, 193; biographical sketch, 
354- 

Yerger, Jacob S., Mississippi Whig 
leader, 82. 

Yulee, David L., defeated for re- 
election to the United States 
Senate, 193-194. 

Zollikoffer, Felix K., on the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, 289-290. 



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